BV  1580  .  S7 

Squires,  Walter  Albion. 

The  week  day  church  school 


Class  in  the  Week  Day  Church  School  of  the  Magyar  Reformed  Church.  Toledo,  Ohio 


A  Week  Day  Church  School  Class  in  the  Hungarian  Reformed  Church.  Toledo,  Ohio 


00*1  31  1925 
The       ^^IgfCAl  Kttgg 

Week  Day  Church  School 


A  Historical  Sketch,  Brief  Analysis,  and  Attempted  Evaluation  of  the 
Organized  Efforts  to  Furnish  Week  Day  Religious  Instruc- 
tion to  Pupils  of  Elementary  and  High  School 
Age  in  the  United  States 


By  y 

Walter  Albion 'Squires,  B.D. 

Director  of  Week  Day  Religion.*  Instruction 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath  School  Work 


With  jin  Introduction  by 

Habold  McA.  Robinson,  D.D. 


philadelphia 

Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication 

and  Sabbath  School  Work 

1921 


Copyright,  19*1 

by 

F.   M.    BRASELMAN 


THIS  BOOK  is  dedicated  to  Oscar 
Chrisman,  at  one  time  Professor  of 
Child  Study  in  the  Kansas  State  Normal 
School;  to  George  Albert  Coe,  in  whose 
classes  I  was  enrolled  for  a  little  while  in 
Northwestern  University;  to  Warren  Hall 
Landon,  President  of  San  Francisco  Theo- 
logical Seminary  and  Instuctor  in  Sunday- 
School  Work;  to  Edward  Porter  St.  John 
and  George  Ellsworth  Dawson,  formerly 
professors  in  Hartford  School  of  Religious 
Pedagogy;  to  Norman  E.  Richardson  and 
Walter  Scott  Athearn,  whose  efficient 
teaching  in  Boston  School  of  Theology 
is  deeply  appreciated.  These  were  my 
teachers  in  Religious  Pedagogy  and  Child 
Psychology.  The  memory  of  their  faith- 
ful classroom  work  has  lasted  through  the 
years.  I  owe  them  a  debt  I  can  never 
pay.  If  this  book  contains  anything  of 
value  the  credit  belongs  to  them;  if  it 
has  wandered  from  the  truth,  the  fault 
is  all  my  own. 

The  Author 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

'T'HIS  book  is  prepared  in  the  hope  that  it  may  help  to 
meet  the  rapidly  growing  demand  for  information 
concerning  week-day  religious  instruction.  It  was  im- 
possible to  give  adequate  information  in  the  author's  pam- 
phlet on  the  Gary  Church  School  Plan.  Even  the  enlarged 
second  edition  of  that  leaflet,  because  of  the  limitations  as 
to*space,  had  to  leave  some  important  matters  untouched. 
A  fuller  treatment  of  these  subjects  has  been  possible  in 
the  present  volume. 

More  than  thirty  different  communities  have  under- 
taken the  organization  of  classes  for  week-day  religious 
instruction  during  the  past  five  months.  A  still  larger 
number  of  communities  are  planning  to  begin  this  type  of 
work  before  the  end  of  the  present  school  year.  If  the 
movement  continues  to  grow  in  the  geometrical  ratio  which 
has  characterized  its  growth  for  the  past  two  or  three  years, 
it  will  soon  assume  proportions  overshadowing  every  other 
educational  agency  of  the  Church. 

In  the  genesis  of  such  a  widespread  movement  there  are 
many  dangers.  New  ground  is  being  broken;  we  are  out- 
side the  beaten  and  familiar  paths.  Our  courses  of  study 
are  in  an  incomplete  and  somewhat  chaotic  state.  The 
element  of  experiment  is  large,  because  precedents  are  few 
and  fragmentary.  Large  waste  of  effort  and  some  finan- 
cial loss  are  apt  to  occur  unless  the  experiences  of  the  com- 
munities which  have  been  longest  in  the  movement  are 
gathered  up  and  made  available  for  those  just  launching 
into  the  enterprise.  That  the  great  and  historic  elements 
of  our  religion  may  find  their  rightful  place  in  the  new  pro- 
gram of  religious  education,  there  is  need  that  it  have  the 


C  THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

guiding  care  of  minds  trained  in  theology,  as  well  as  the 
guiding  care  of  minds  trained  in  the  fundamentals  of 
modern  pedagogy.  There  is  need  that  the  ministry  of  the 
Church  give  it  large  attention. 

The  author's  viewpoint  is  that  of  one  who  regards  a 
larger  use  of  the  educative  principle  in  evangelism  as 
highly  desirable.  He  believes  that  educational  influences 
are  among  the  most  potent  agencies  used  of  God  in  leading 
souls  to  conversion  experiences,  and  that  they  are  essential 
for  after-conversion  development  if  the  newborn  soul  is 
ever  to  become  anything  more  than  a  perpetual  babe  of  the 
faith.  All  efforts  to  set  evangelism  and  religious  nurture 
over  against  each  other  as  wholly  distinct  and  mutually 
exclusive  methods  of  bringing  individuals  into  the  King- 
dom, are  to  be  discouraged.  They  seek  to  alienate  agen- 
cies which  ought  to  work  in  closest  unity.  When  the 
splendid  zeal  of  the  true  evangelist  and  the  learned  skill  of 
the  trained  pedagogue  are  in  close  cooperation,  the  work 
of  the  Church  is  most  efficiently  done. 

The  author  has  tried  to  give  the  readers  of  this  book 
something  more  than  the  mere  facts  concerning  the  week- 
day church-school  enterprises  so  far  undertaken  in  the 
country.  He  has  tried  to  analyze  and  evaluate  the  facts. 
The  statistics  contained  in  the  following  pages  will  be  out 
of  date  almost  as  soon  as  the  book  is  published;  but  the 
author  has  dared  to  hope  that  the  discussion  of  the  prin- 
ciples involved  may  be  of  somewhat  more  abiding  value. 

If  this  volume  should  prove  helpful  to  those  entering 
upon  the  organization  of  week-day  church  schools,  the 
author  will  feel  abundantly  repaid  by  the  thought  that  he 
has  made  some  small  contribution  to  so  great  a  cause.  He 
who  attempts  to  write  on  such  an  important  subject  as 
religious  education,  should  feel  himself  bound  to  speak  the 
truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  The 
author  has  tried  to  keep  this  obligation  in  view  through- 


THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE  7 

out  the  preparation  of  the  material  contained  in  this  book. 
He  requests  that  his  work  be  examined  and  criticised  with 
the  same  attitude  of  mind. 

Acknowledgements  are  due  to  Professor  Edward  Porter 
St.  John  and  to  Professor  George  E.  Dawson  for  permission 
to  use  materials  secured  in  their  classes  at  Hartford  School 
of  Religious  Pedagogy.  The  author  has  written  under  the 
constant  advice  and  direction  of  Dr.  Harold  McA.  Robin- 
son, Secretary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication 
and  Sabbath  School  Work.  The  author  visited  most  of 
the  communities  where  week-day  religious  instruction  is 
being  carried  on  and  found  teachers,  superintendents,  and 
pastors  glad  to  give  information  concerning  the  week-day 
church-school  work  in  which  they  were  engaged.  He  takes 
this  opportunity  to  thank  them  for  their  help  and  cour- 
teous hospitality. 

Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  May  1,1921. 


J 


INTRODUCTION 

'T'HIS  is  a  handbook  of  recent  experience  in  the  field  of 
week-day  religious  instruction.  Mr.  Squires  recites 
the  historic  causes  which  are  the  inspiration  of  the  present 
movement.  He  gathers  the  experience  gained  in  various 
experiments,  analyzes  it,  and  makes  it  available  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Church.  But  while  this  is  specifically  a 
handbook  of  experience,  a  theory  underlies  it  whose  essen- 
tial nature  ought  to  be  briefly  developed  in  this  intro- 
duction. 

The  end  sought  in  religious  education  determines  the 
means.  This  handbook  rests  upon  the  theory  that  reli- 
gious education,  when  filled  with  a  Christian  content, 
seeks  a  spiritual  end.  The  end  is  primarily  spiritual  and 
personal,  and  only  secondarily,  though  necessarily,  moral 
and  social.  This  is  not  to  say  that  religious  education  has 
no  moral  and  social  objectives,  but  that  the  attainment  of 
these  moral  and  social  objectives  is  dependent  upon  and 
consequent  to  the  achievement  of  the  great  spiritual  and 
personal  end — the  establishment  of  communion  between 
the  individual  and  God.  It  does  not  deny,  but  strongly 
insists  upon  the  active  contribution  which  God  himself 
makes  to  the  achievement  of  this  communion.  Indeed,  it 
delimits,  on  the  human  side,  the  contribution  which  edu- 
cation may  make  to  the  end  sought,  in  terms  of  the 
Pauline  phrase,  "I  planted,  Apollos  watered;  but  God 
gave  the  increase."  It  does  not  admit  an  otiose  deity,  but 
fully  depends  upon  the  Christian  God  whose  saving  grace 
is  active  and  effectual.  Concretely  defined  in  terms  of 
Christian  history,  the  end  sought  in  religious  education  is 

9 


10  INTRODUCTION 

the  cultivation  of  an  informed  and  personal  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  as  Saviour  and  Lord  and  the  dedication  of  a  trained 
and  obedient  life  to  his  service. 

This  theory  conserves  the  fruits  of  the  Protestant 
Reformation  which  are  largely  in  peril  in  our  day.  It 
takes  the  ancient  ground  that  Christianity  is  a  religion  of 
a  faith  which  is  creative  of  a  moral  and  social  disposition, 
and  not  a  religion  of  moral  and  social  dispositions  mechan- 
ically acquired.  To  speak  a  theological  language,  salvation 
is  not  by  character  but  in  order  to  it.  This  theory  will  not 
insist  less  upon  character,  but  rather  more.  It  will  not 
deny  the  widest  moral  and  social  implications  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  will  rather  furnish  them  with  adequate  ground 
and  motivation.  It  will  deepen  the  sources  of  the  Chris- 
tian life  while  it  widens  its  scope. 

This  theory,  moreover,  will  conserve  the  independence 
of  Christianity.  Christianity  will  not  be  construed  as 
either  the  equivalent  or  the  servant  of  democracy,  even 
when  democracy  is  defined  as  a  social  spirit.  The  concepts 
of  Christianity  and  democracy  will  not  be  allowed  to  fall 
together.  The  end  of  religious  education  is  not  the  train- 
ing of  citizens  for  a  democracy.  The  end  of  religious  edu- 
cation lies  beyond  the  historic  State  and  beyond  society 
as  at  present  organized.  The  end  of  religious  education  is 
the  making  of  Christians,  not  citizens.  Of  course,  Chris- 
tians will  continue  to  be  citizens,  and  their  civic  and  social 
responsibilities  will  be  fully  insisted  upon.  The  unfolding 
of  a  Christian's  duty  to  society  and  the  training  of  the 
individual  to  the  full  discharge  of  that  duty  will  be  no 
inconsiderable  part  of  the  process  of  religious  education, 
but  social  service,  thus  broadly  understood,  will  be  kept 
in  its  place  as  the  fruit  and  not  the  root  of  Christianity. 
In  other  words,  this  handbook  proceeds  on  the  assumption 
that  the  Christian  is  a  citizen  of  two  worlds,  but  that  his 
naturalization  into  the  citizenship  of  heaven  alone  qualifies 


INTRODUCTION  11 

him  for  the  full  discharge  of  his  moral  and  social  duties  in 
this  present  society. 

Not  only  laborious  and  sacrifical  effort  is  necessary  if 
the  Church  is  to  take  advantage  of  the  rising  tide  of  in- 
terest in  the  religious  education  of  the  helpless  childhood 
and  stormy  youth  of  the  nation,  but  careful  thinking  that 
will  preserve  for  that  generation  our  Christian  heritage, 
undiminished  and  undefiled  and  enriched  by  our  own 
experience.  It  would  be  sad  if  when  the  Church  was  sum- 
moned to  new  and  gigantic  tasks,  it  should  undertake 
them  cut  off  from  the  deep  and  eternal  sources  of  power. 

Harold  McA.  Robinson. 

Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Introduction 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Place  of  Religious  Education  in  the  Program  of  the  Church.    Its 
importance  shown  by: 

1.  Church  Statistics 18 

2.  Statistics  Concerning  Juvenile  Delinquency  and   Adolescent 

( 'rime 27 

3.  The  Development  of  a  Psychology  of  Religion 29 

4.  A  Better  Understanding  of  the  Laws  of  Heredity 31 

5.  Developments  in  Secular  Educational  Science 33 

6.  More  Extensive  Knowledge  Concerning  the  Great  Religions  of 

the  World 34 

7.  Experiences  in  Great  Reforms 35 

8.  Recent  Demonstrations  of  the  Power  of  Education  to  Trans- 

form National  Life 38 

9.  A  Changed  Conception  as  to  the  Scope  and  Function  of  Re- 

ligion    40 

10.  The  Cessation  of  Theological  Controversies  and  the  Turning 
of  the  Religious  Mind  of  the  Times  Back  to  the  Teachings 
and  Example  of  Jesus 41 

CHAPTER  II 

Inadequacy  of  the  Customary  Educational  Agencies  of  the  Church. 
The  customary  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  are  inadequate: 

1 .  As  to  Time  Provided  for  Religious  Instruction 4fi 

2.  As  to  Teaching  Force 48 

3.  As  to  Supervision  of  Teachers  and  Instruction 49 

4.  As  to  Financial  Support 50 

5.  As  to  Housing  and  Equipment 51 

0.  As  to  Courses  of  Study 53 

7.  As  to  Expressional  Activity 53 

8.  As  to  Correlation 54 

9.  As  to  Distribution  of  Agencies 55 

10.  As  to  Spiritual  Dynamic 58 

CHAPTER  III 

Various  Attempts  to  Supplement  the  Educational  Agencies  of  the 
Church 

1.  Vacation  Bible  Schools 70 

2.  Summer  Schools  of  Religion 72 

13 


14  TABLE  OF  CONTEXTS 

3.  Community  Training  Schools 74 

4.  Occasional  Classes 75 

5.  Parochial  Schools 76 

6.  Pastor's  Communicant  Classes 76 

7.  Pre-School  Chapel  Services 78 

8.  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Classes 78 

9.  Public-School  Credits  for  Outside  Bible  Studv 80 

10.  Week-Day  Church  Schools 81 

CHAPTER  IV 

Three  Types  of  Week-Day  Church  Schools 

1.  The  Denominational  or  Individual  Church  Type 87 

2.  The  Denominational  Community  Type 94 

8.  Tlie  Interdenominational  Community  Type 99 


! 


CHAPTER  V 

Some  Contributions   of   the  Week-Day  Church-School    Movement 
Toward  the  Solution  of  Religious  Educational  Problems 

1 .  More  Adequate  Time  for  Religious  Instruction 112 

■2.  More  Regular  Attendance 114 

3.  Better  Trained  Teachers 116 

4.  More  Complete  Correlation , 116 

5.  More  Adequate  Courses  of  Study 117 

(i.  Better  Equipment  and  Housing 118 

7.  More  Expressional  Work 119 

8.  Contribution  to  the  General  Pedogogical  Science . 119 

9.  Reaching  the  Children  Spiritually  Untaught 119 

lit.  Better  Distribution  of  Agencies 126 

CHAPTER  VI 

Problems  Involved  in  the  Organization  and  Administration  of  Week- 
Day  Church  Schools 

1.  The  Securing  of  Teachers 131 

2.  Rooms  and  Equipment 135 

3.  Time  for  the  Meeting  of  Classes 137 

4.  Courses  of  Study 140 

5.  Governing  Boards 142 

6.  Financing  the  Schools 145 

7.  Books  and  Materials 147 

8.  Records  and  Reports 140 

9.  Grading 150 

10.  Recruiting  Pupils 151 

CHAPTER  VII 

Sources  of  Information  Concerning  Week-Day  Church  Schools 159 

Index 166 


CHAPTER  I 


The  Place  of  Religious  Education  in 
the  Program  of  the  Church 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Place  op  Religious  Education  in  the  Program 
of  the  Church 

A  LITTLE  more  than  seventy  years  ago,  Horace  Bush- 
"^  nell  published  his  book  entitled  "Christian  Nurture." 
It  has  been  maintained  that  no  literary  production  is  ever 
rightly  called  "epoch  making."  However,  Dr.  Bushnell's 
book  conies  near  being  entitled  to  this  much  used  phrase. 
If  the  publication  of  "Christian  Nurture"  did  not  cause  a 
new  era  of  religious  education  to  begin,  it  certainly  marked 
the  beginning  of  one.  These  seventy  years  have  been 
eventful  for  the  growth  of  appreciation  of  the  teaching 
function  of  the  Church.  When  this  seventy-year  period 
began,  education  was  hardly  considered  to  be  a  means  of 
grace  for  the  spiritual  regeneration  of  individuals  and  the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  At  the  end  of  the  period 
we  are  coining  to  realize  that  it  is  a  primary  factor  in 
both. 

The  twenty  years  following  the  publication  of  Dr. 
Bushnell's  book  were  marked  by  the  multiplication  and  de- 
velopment of  Sunday-school  associations.  This  phase  of 
the  religious  education  revival  reached  its  climax  with  the 
organization  of  the  World's  Sunday  School  Association  in 
1886.  Then  came  years  when  the  improvement  of  Sunday 
schools  was  the  primary  educational  interest  of  the  Church. 
Organized  classes,  teacher  training,  graded  lessons,  de- 
partmental organization;  these  were  the  subjects  on  which 
Sunday-school  literature  dwelt — the  improvements  for 
which  progressive  schools  made  effort.  Sunday-school 
buildings  began  to  be  added  to  the  church  plant  with  in- 
creasing frequency.     The  Akron  style  of  Sunday-school 


18  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

architecture,  with  classrooms  spread  in  a  wide  arc  about 
the  superintendent's  platform,  was  evolved. 

At  about  the  time  the  twentieth  century  began,  a  grow- 
ing conviction  that  the  Sunday-school  could  never  be  made 
an  adequate  agency  for  the  whole  educational  task  of  the 
Church,  whs  manifesting  itself.  Religious  educational 
agencies  for  the  successful  supplementing  of  the  Sunday - 
school  instruction  became  the  goal  of  thoughtful  church 
leaders.  Out  of  this  quest  for  more  adequate  agencies  for 
the  teaching  function  of  the  Church  have  grown  the  Vaca- 
tion Bible  School  movement,  the  attempt  to  secure  public- 
school  credit  for  outside  Bible  study,  and  the  week-day 
church-school  movement. 

Many  causes  have  contributed  to  this  growing  interest  in 
religious  education.  A  listing  and  analyzing  of  these  con- 
tributing causes  ought  to  be  of  use  in  giving  us  an  under- 
standing of  the  historical  development  of  this  phase  of 
religious  interest.  Such  an  attempt  may  also  be  useful  in 
helping  us  to  a  more  adequate  conception  of  the  import- 
ance of  the  teaching  function  of  the  Church.  For  we  must 
not  fall  into  the  error  of  believing  that  this  seventy-year 
period  of  growing  interest  in  religious  education  and  of 
more  or  less  persistent  efforts  to  improve  the  educational 
agencies  of  the  Church  has  accomplished  all  that  is  neces- 
sary. An  intelligent  interest  in  religious  education  and  an 
enthusiastic  devotion  to  the  teaching  ministry  of  the  Church 
are  characteristics,  not  of  many  church  members,  but  of 
comparatively  few.  The  place  assigned  in  the  economy  of 
the  Church  to  the  religious  educational  agencies  is  far  from 
satisfactory.  The  causes  here  named  are  given  without  any 
attempt  to  arrange  them  according  either  to  their  relative 
importance,  or  their  historical  sequence. 

1.  Church  statistics.  Church  statistics  have  long 
been  thought  of  as  necessarily  uninteresting  and  well- 
nigh  valueless.     This  ought  not  to  be.     Church  statistics 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIC.  10 IS  EDUCATION  19 

constitute  the  bookkeeping  of  the  Church  and  good  book- 
keeping is  quite  as  essential  to  a  successful  organization 
and  administration  of  the  Kingdom  interest  as  it  is  to  our 
great  business  enterprises.  No  important  commercial  firm 
would  think  of  getting  along  with  poorly  kept,  unreliable, 
and  unanalyzed  records.  During  the  past  few  years, 
churches  have  improved  much  in  this  matter.  Statistics 
have  been  gathered  more  extensively,  and  more  carefully. 
They  have  been  subjected  to  close  scrutiny  and  analysis. 
The  results  of  such  study  of  statistics  have  been  tabulated, 
charted,  and  rendered  fit  for  use  in  a  larger  way  than  they 
have  ever  been  before.  Something  of  the  trained  skill  and 
the  scientific  accuracy  of  the  professional  statistician  has 
been  devoted  to  the  study  of  data  concerning  the  Church. 
The  more  we  know  about  the  sources  from  which  the 
Church  recruits  its  membership,  the  more  we  come  to  see 
the  importance  of  the  educational  activities  of  the  Church 
as  recruiting  agencies.  The  more  we  know  about  the  leak- 
ages through  which  those  who  are  the  Church's  own  go 
out  to  join  the  army  of  the  unchurched,  the  more  we  come 
to  appreciate  the  educational  activities  of  the  Church  as 
conservation  agencies.  In  general,  the  most  enduring 
successes  of  the  Church  can  be  traced  back  to  some  effi- 
cient educational  activity;  its  most  glaring  failures  are 
quite  as  often  due  to  educational  inefficiency  and  neglect. 
Occasionally  people  fear  that  the  emphasizing  of  reli- 
gious education  will  lead  to  spiritual  coldness  and  life- 
less formality.  Such  fears  are  certainly  quite  groundless. 
Coldness  and  formality  exist  in  the  Church,  not  because 
of  educational  activity,  but  because  of  the  lack  of  it.  Does 
a  live  and  efficient  Sunday  school  put  a  spiritual  damper 
on  the  church  with  which  it  is  connected?  Does  the  Sun- 
day-school teacher  whose  heart  is  burning  with  love  for 
her  pupils  and  zeal  for  their  spiritual  welfare,  go  inevitably 
to  the  overburdened  "suspended  roll"  of  the  church? 


20  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

Spiritual  emotion,  sane  and  enduring,  is  best  attained 
under  the  careful  and  patient  nurture  of  the  child  by  godly 
parents  and  wise,  consecrated  teachers,  rather  than  in  some 
sudden  xevival  experience  of  maturity.  The  best  religious 
emotional  life  is  an  educational  product.  This  is  not  to 
say  that  there  is  no  divine  element  in  it.  Education  is  the 
instrumentality  used  of  the  Spirit  for  a  divine  work  of 
grace  in  the  heart.  The  spiritual  growth  that  is  develop- 
mental and  gradual  is  just  as  wonderful,  just  as  super- 
natural as  any.  Jesus  "grew  and  waxed  strong,  filled  with 
wisdom:  and  the  grace  of  God  was  upon  him."  True 
Christian  nurture  is  a  divine  process  of  regeneration,  in 
which  God  uses  a  human  instrumentality  for  the  salvation 
of  souls.  The  Holy  Spirit  is  quite  as  truly  in  the  educa- 
tive process  as  he  is  in  methods  more  sudden,  spectacular, 
and  mysterious. 

Statistics  show  that  at  least  sixty  per  cent  of  all  addi- 
tions to  the  Church  are  brought  about  primarily  through 
the  Sunday  school.  This  one  educational  agency  of  the 
Church  is  worth  more,  as  an  evangelizing  power,  than  all 
the  other  agencies  of  the  Church  put  together.  This  cannot 
be  due  to  any  superiority  of  the  Sunday  school  over  the 
other  agencies  of  the  Church  in  matters  of  organization, 
equipment,  and  financial  support.  The  Sunday  school  is 
notably  weak  and  neglected  in  the  matters  named.  It  is 
due  to  the  marked  responsiveness  of  childhood  and  youth 
to  religious  influences  of  the  educational  type.  The  fact 
that  the  Sunday  school,  handicapped  by  such  grave  limita- 
tions, is  yet  the  primary  recruiting  agency  of  the  Christian 
Church,  is  an  indication  of  what  might  be  accomplished  if 
the  religious  educational  agencies  of  Protestantism  were 
adequately  organized  and  efficiently  administered. 

Chart  No.  1  represents  the  people  brought  into 
church  membership  through  the  Sunday-school  activities 
in   a  typical  small  church  compared  with  the  number 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 


21 


that    are    brought    into    the    Church   through    all    other 
sources. 

Chart  No.  1 

ADDITIONS  to  tnc  CHURCH 


A. 


PER  CENT  83 


Chart  No.  2  is  based  on  a  study  in  a  church  of  two 
hundred  members.  It  is  typical  of  a  large  number  of 
the  smaller  churches.  In  many  churches  the  Sunday 
school  is  the  primary  point  of  contact  with  the  com- 
munity. 

Not  only  the  largest  number  of  recruits  for  the  Church, 

but  the  most  valuable  recruits  are  secured  through  the 

educational  activities  of  the  Sunday  school.     It  is  gener- 

.  ally  true  that  the  people  of  the  church's  membership  who 

are  the  best  workers  and  most  generous  givers  are  those 


22  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

who  have  been  brought  up  from  childhood  under  the 
tutelage  of  the  Church.  There  are  occasional  exceptions, 
but  only  enough  to  demonstrate  that  the  rule  is  all  but 
universal  in  its  application. 

The  most  enduring  additions  to  the  Church  are  gained 
through  educational  activity.     It  has  been  demonstrated 

Chart  No.  2 

CONTACT  with  COMMUNITY 


SUNDAY 
SCHOOL 

WITH 

OTHER 

AGENCIES  |SUNDAY 
SCHOOL 
ALONE 


1 


OTHER 
AGENCIES 


35  50  15 

PER  CENT 

that  of  the  converts  brought  into  the  fellowship  of  believers 
through  the  customary  revival  methods,  eighty-seven  per 
cent  fall  away  in  five  years.  Of  the  converts  brought  into 
the  Church  through  the  Sunday  school  and  the  pastor's 
communicant  class,  forty  per  cent  fall  away  in  five  years. 
In  one  case  thirteen  out  of  a  hundred  converts  are  to  be 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 


rf.-J 


found  in  the  Church  after  five  years;  in  the  other  case 
sixty  out  of  every  hundred  are  still  found  faithful  after  a 
like  period  of  time.  In  the  matter  of  securing  an  enduring' 
attachment  to  the  Christian  faith,  the  educational  method 
is  more  than  four  times  as  efficient  as  the  revivalistic 
method. 

No  reflection  on  revivals  is  intended.    They  have  been 


Chart  No.  3 


AGEorQONVERSION 
AGES       ie       8G3I 


6-29 


14 


12 


10 


9 

iii! 


13 


15 


17 


PERSONS 


18 


13 


ao 


21 


*  n  r  iu  o  u  en  en  ^  0)  (o  a  «j  a)  ui  a  is  io  r*  —  *  o  iu  o 


greatly  used  of  God  in  the  evangelization  of  the  world, 
and  ought  to  have  a  place  in  the  economy  of  the  Church ; 
but  careful  analysis  of  their  results  would  indicate  that 
they  have  either  been  unwisely  managed,  or  that  their 
relative  importance  is  not  so  great  as  has  been  supposed! 
The  evanescent  character  of  the  customary  tabernacle 
revival  may  be  due  to  both  of  the  causes  suggested.     A 


24  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

satisfactory  method  of  planning,  conducting,  conserving, 
and  financing  revivals  has  not  yet  been  evolved.  The 
product  has  been  defective  because  the  methods  were 
faulty.  It  is  also  doubtless  true  that  many  groups  of 
Christian  believers  have  come  to  rely  too  exclusively  upon 
the  revival  for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom. 

Chart  No.  3  on  page  23  is  an  illustration  of  how 
church  statistics  carefully  gathered,  thoroughly  analyzed, 
rightly  interpreted,  and  properly  charted  contribute  to  an 
understanding  of  the  importance  of  religious  education. 
Statistics  were  gathered  as  to  the  age  at  which  each  of  these 
8631  persons  were  converted.  The  numbers  along  the  tops 
of  the  vertical  lines  indicate  the  ages,  those  along  the  bot- 
toms of  the  lines  the  actual  number  of  cases  at  each  age. 
That  is  at  six  years  of  age  forty-three  persons  out  of  the 
8631  were  converted;  eighty-seven  persons  were  con- 
verted at  seven  years  of  age;  146  at  eight  years  of  age, 
and  so  on.  It  will  be  noted  that  the  number  of  conver- 
sions rises  steadily  with  advancing  age  until  the  age  of 
sixteen  is  reached;  with  the  exception  of  slight  declen- 
sions at  thirteen  and  fifteen.  Later  studies  of  conversion 
tend  to  show  modifications  of  the  results  here  tabula- 
ted. It  is  probably  true  that  conversions  at  the  present 
time  occur  most  frequently  at  an  age  younger  than  sixteen. 
The  figures  here  given  were  obtained  from  questions  to 
adult  people  as  to  the  age  at  which  they  were  converted, 
hence  are  based  on  what  was  true  a  generation  or  so  ago. 
Studies  of  actual  conversions  at  the  present  time  seem  to 
give  results  differing  as  I  have  indicated.  However,  these 
minor  differences  do  not  concern  us  in  the  present  discus- 
sion. The  results  here  tabulated  proclaim  in  unmistakable 
terms  that  the  period  of  life  reaching  from  the  age  of  eight 
to  the  age  of  twenty -five  is  God's  and  nature's  time  for  the 
grounding  of  the  individual  in  religion.  In  this  study  of 
over  eight  thousand  conversions,  not  one  occurred  after  the 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  25 

age  of  twenty-nine  years.  A  thoughtful  consideration  of  the 
facts  pictured  in  this  chart  raises  more  questions  than  we 
can  well  consider  here.  Seven  times  as  many  conversions 
take  place  at  the  age  of  sixteen  as  at  the  age  of  twenty-six. 
Does  this  mean  that  the  adult  is  seven  times  as  hard  to 
win  for  the  Church  as  the  youth  of  sixteen?  Does  it  mean 
that  while  we  were  winning  one  person  twenty-six  years  of 
age  Ave  might  have  won  seven  boys  and  girls  sixteen  years 
of  age?  The  curve  of  conversion,  beginning  at  the  age  of 
six,  sweeps  upward  to  the  age  of  sixteen,  then  downward, 
disappearing  at  twenty-nine.  If  we  count  the  conversion 
curve  as  extending  from  six  to  twenty-six,  the  maximum 
occurs  exactly  in  the  middle  of  the  curve  at  sixteen.  For 
which  side  of  this  curve  are  the  hymns,  the  worship,  the 
sermon  planned?  For  the  service  of  which  side  of  this 
curve  does  theological  education  fit  young  men?  These 
questions  are  not  suggested  in  a  spirit  of  destructive  criti- 
cism, but  in  a  spirit  of  constructive  criticism.  The  writer 
is  not  pleading  for  less  earnest  and  less  extensive  efforts  to 
reach  adults,  but  for  more  earnest  and  more  extensive 
effort  to  reach  children  and  youth.  Some  conversions  do 
occur  in  middle  life,  some  even  in  old  age,  and  we  should 
never  cease  our  efforts  to  turn  the  lives  of  the  unregenerate 
Godward;  but  we  ought  not  to  neglect  that  part  of  life 
when  the  soul  is  most  responsive  to  religious  influences. 

It  is  well  to  note  here  that  conversion  in  the  case  of  a 
child  or  youth  reared  in  a  Christian  home,  taught  by 
Christian  parents,  nurtured  in  a  Christian  church,  is  not 
the  same  kind  of  experience  as  that  of  an  adult  who  has 
lived  long  in  willful  rebellion  against  God.  The  conversion 
experience  of  the  former  is  developmental;  that  of  the 
latter  is  apt  to  be  cataclysmic.  Conversion  in  the  former 
case  is  the  responsive  unfolding  of  a  soul  to  the  influence 
of  God  as  a  flower  blossoms  through  the  nurture  derived 
from  the  soil,  moisture,  and  sunshine  which  have  minis- 


26 


THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 


tered  to  it  from  the  beginning.  Conversion  in  the  latter 
case  is  the  turning  again  homeward  of  a  prodigal  soul  long 
absent  from  the  Father's  house.  Why  anyone  should  be 
suspicious  of  the  developmental  type  of  conversion  is  hard 
to  understand.     If  the  finding  and  reading  of  a  fragment 

Chart  No.  4 

DOMINANT  ACTIVITY 

.  ACQUISITION 

EXPRESSION 

IHH  MEDITATION 


EARLY  LIFE- MIDDLE  LIFE- LATER  LIFE 


(This  chart  represents  the  general  psychic  activities  in 
their  comparative  prominence  at  various  periods  of  life. 
Our  religious  educational  program  should  be  brought  into 
harmony  with  these  underlying  facts  of  the  psychic  life  of 
the  individual.) 

of  the  gospel  by  a  man  of  pagan  faith  in  central  Japan 
was  used  of  the  Spirit  to  turn  the  soul  of  the  finder  from 
darkness  to  light;    is  it  unsafe  to  believe  that  the  Word 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  27 

taught  to  a  child,  from  its  earliest  years  by  godly  parents 
and  teachers,  can  be  used  in  the  same  manner? 

This  span  of  years  from  the  age  of  six  to  the  age  of 
twenty-six  is  the  educational  period  of  life.  Here  is  a  sig- 
nificant parallelism.  The  opening  of  the  life  to  educational 
influences  and  its  responsiveness  to  influences  leading  to 
conversion  keep  pace  with  one  another.  They  wax  and 
wane  together.  As  the  life  of  an  individual  begins  to  take 
on  its  fixed  habits,  begins  to  be  less  responsive  to  educative 
agencies,  the  probability  of  conversion  begins  to  grow  less. 
These  facts  are  an  indication  of  the  primary  importance 
of  the  educative  agencies  in  the  spiritual  processes  leading 
to  conversion. 

2.  Statistics  concerning  juvenile  delinquency  and 
adolescent  crime.  Prevention  is  better  than  cure  in 
spiritual  matters  quite  as  truly  as  in  physical  matters. 
Preservation  is  better  than  rescue  as  a  working  goal  for 
the  Christian  Church.  It  has  just  been  seen  that  religious 
education  holds  an  important  place  among  the  agencies 
influential  in  securing  a  vital  religious  experience.  Now 
the  author  wishes  to  consider  religious  education  as  an 
agency  of  spiritual  congejrvation.  The  spiritual  waste  of 
our  civilization  is  appalling,  for  there  is  no  loss  so  deplor- 
able as  the  wraste  of  misspent  lives.  Howr  to  turn  the  foot- 
steps of  childhood  and  youth  away  from  danger  paths,  is 
the  problem  of  problems.  Secular  education  wall  not  ac- 
complish the  desired  end.  Formal  instruction  in  morals 
will  not  suffice.  There  must  be  the  culture  of  the  deepest 
and  most  controlling  faculties  of  the  soul,  the  religious 
instincts  and  capacities.  There  has  been  a  distinct  turn- 
ing of  public-school  teachers,  truancy  officers,  social  settle- 
ment workers,  of  all  who  have  been  interested  in  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  childhood  and  youth,  and  who  have 
tried  to  stem  the  tide  which  carries  young  life  so  strongly 
towrard  that  which  is  evil — there  has  been  a  turning  of  all 


28  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

these  to  the  Church.  They  have  said,  "We  must  have 
your  help;  the  task  is  yours,  as  well  as  ours."  The  more 
we  find  out  about  the  causes  of  juvenile  delinquency  and 
adolescent  crime,  the  more  apparent  is  the  need  for  a  re- 
ligious educational  program  which  will  conserve  the 
precious  young  life  of  the  race. 

Chart  No.  5  on  page  29  is  based  on  a  study  of  17,453 
cases  of  juvenile  delinquency  and  adolescent  crime. 
The  numbers  along  the  base  indicate  the  ages  at  which  a 
first  crime  was  committed.  The  numbers  at  the  right 
show  the  number  of  cases  of  first  crime  occurring  at  each 
age.  The  upper  curve  indicates  the  crime  tendency  in 
boys,  the  lower  curve  the  tendency  in  girls.  At  eight  years 
of  age  160  boys  and  150  girls  out  of  this  total  of  17,453 
committed  their  first  crime.  The  number  of  boys  increases 
rapidly  with  advancing  age  and  reaches  its  maximum  at 
sixteen.  The  number  of  girls  increases  slowly,  reaching  its 
maximum  at  fourteen,  but  totaling  hardly  one  fourth  that 
of  the  boys.  This  chart  has  many  lessons  for  the  parent 
and  the  religious  teacher.  It  shows  the  greater  peril  which 
surrounds  the  growing  boy  compared  with  that  which 
menaces  the  growing  girl.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  of 
these  17,453  cases  not  one  boy  committed  his  first  crime 
after  twenty,  and  not  one  girl  after  twenty-one.  The  boy 
or  the  girl  who  has  been  brought  through  the  adolescent 
period  without  serious  stumbling  is  comparatively  safe. 
Here  is  the  period  of  life  where  the  Church,  the  home,  and 
the  State  ought  to  unite  in  a  far-reaching  and  potent  pro- 
gram of  protective  preservation. 

Here  is  another  striking  parallelism.  The  period  of  life 
most  open  to  educative  influences  and  the  period  of  life 
subject  to  greatest  spiritual  perils  are  conterminous.  The 
opening  of  the  life  to  evil  influences  and  the  responsiveness 
of  the  life  to  educative  agencies  keep  step  with  one  another. 
The  decline  of  the  responsiveness  to  educational  stimuli  is 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION 


29 


also  the  time  of  lessening  spiritual  peril.  Can  you  see  why 
young  lives  go  astray?  Not  chiefly  from  a  perverseness 
that  deliberately  refuses  good  and  chooses  evil ;  not  chiefly 
because  of  the  "  old  Adam  "  within :  but  because  the  educa- 
tional influences  about  the  life  are  not  good  but  btid. 

3.    The  development  of  a  psychology  of  religion. 
A  scientific  study  of  religious  phenomena  has  been  de- 


2000 


Chart  No.  5 

YOUTH  AND  CRIME 

174-53  CASES 


—BOYS 
GIRLS 


SO   £1 


veloping  for  about  twenty  years.  The  results  of  a  validly 
scientific  investigation  of  the  religious  consciousness  have 
been  of  no  small  importance  in  the  creating  of  a  wider  and 
deeper  interest  in  religious  education.  I  speak  of  a  "val- 
idly scientific"  investigation  of  the  religious  consciousness, 
because  a  certain  school  of  religious  psychologists  do  not 
seem  to  be  entitled  to  the  standing  of  scientific  investi- 


30  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

gators.  Yet  this  is  the  school  which  makes  the  largest 
claims  to  scientific  method.  I  am  persuaded  that  a  psy- 
chology of  religion  based  on  a  materialistic  conception  of 
life  and  consciousness  can  never  produce  any  results  of 
much  value.  It  maintains  an  agnostic  attitude  toward  too 
many  of  the  facts  of  religion.  I  believe  a  true  psychology 
of  religion  must  begin  with  the  fact  of  a  self-revealing 
prayer-answering  God.  It  must  recognize  that  man  can 
personally  experience  God  as  a  forgiving,  guiding,  helping 
Reality.  It  must  recognize  the  belief  in  a  future  life  as 
based  on  psychic  fact  and  not  make  it  a  dim  and  uncertain 
hypothesis.  However,  there  have  been  all  along  religious 
psychologists  who  recognized  spiritual  realities,  and  the 
movement  is  certainly  in  their  direction  to-day.  The  sig- 
nificant thing  for  us  is  this,  that  the  more  we  know  about 
the  origin  and  development  of  the  religious  consciousness, 
the  more  important  the  educational  agency  is  seen  to  be. 
Psychology  has  shown  the  momentous  importance  of  the 
religious  impressions  of  early  childhood.  The  child  soul  is 
"wax  to  receive  and  marble  to  retain."  What  goes  into 
the  first  impressions  of  life  goes  into  all  of  life.  In  times 
of  great  spiritual  stress  men  speak  the  tongue  learned  on 
their  mother's  knee.  The  early  impressions  of  life  enter 
into  all  our  daily  acts,  deeds,  and  thoughts  in  a  way  we  can 
hardly  comprehend.  Like  the  tracks  in  the  cement  walk, 
made  when  the  mortar  was  soft,  these  early  impressions 
are  not  erased  by  the  passing  feet  of  the  after  years.  It  is 
the  task  of  the  home  and  the  Church  to  see  that  religious 
impressions  are  engraved  deeply  and  abundantly  on  the 
child  soul.  Genetic  psychology  has  taught  that  the  re- 
ligious consciousness  can  be  initiated  under  proper  stimuli 
long  before  the  child  can  read  the  family  Bible  or  under- 
stand the  preacher's  sermon. 

The  term  "adolescent"  does  not  appear  in  any  encyclo- 
pedia published  over  twenty-five  years  ago.     Psycholo- 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  ,;i 

gists  have  not  only  named  this  important  period  of  life, 
they  have  helped  us  to  understand  it  better  than  our  ton- 
fathers  did.  As  we  have  come  into  a  better  understanding 
of  this  somewhat  tumultuous  period  of  life,  we  have  come 
to  appreciate  the  importance  of  careful  educational  pre- 
paration for  its  physical  and  psychic  changes,  and  for 
patient  educational  guidance  through  them  out  into  the 
broader  fields  of  adulthood. 

4.  A  better  understanding  of  the  nature  and  laws 
of  heredity.  Our  knowledge  concerning  the  way  in  which 
the  achievements  of  humanity  are  handed  on  from  genera- 
tion to  generation  has  been  extended  and  clarified  by  the 
discovery  that  there  are  two  distinct  channels  through 
which  one  generation  transmits  its  accomplishments  and 
its  characteristics  to  the  next  succeeding  generation.  One 
of  these  channels  has  been  named  racial  heredity.  Through 
it  any  people  transmit  to  their  descendants  their  physical 
characteristics  and  psychic  capacities.  The  color  of  the 
hair,  the  shape  of  the  face,  the  brain  capacity  of  the  cra- 
nium, these  are  all  transmitted  from  one  generation  to 
another  through  physical  parenthood. 

The  other  channel  is  called  social  heredity.  Through  it 
any  people  transmit  to  their  descendants  their  language, 
social  customs,  religious  ideals,  and  ceremonials.  Social 
heredity  transmits  the  heritage  of  one  generation  to  an- 
other through  the  educative  agencies,  the  teaching  pro- 
cesses. The  teachers  of  any  generation  are  the  spiritual 
parents  of  the  generation  following.  Education  is  the 
golden  chain  which  binds  in  unity  and  gives  permanence 
to  the  achievements  of  the  race,  a  primary  factor  used  of 
God  for  the  progress  of  humanity  onward  to  that 

"Far  off  divine  event. 

Toward  which  the  whole  creation  moves." 

Part  of  the  social  heritage  of  the  race  is  unconsciouslv 


32  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

taught  by  each  generation  to  the  succeeding  one.  Children 
learn  to  speak  the  language  of  their  parents  with  little  or 
no  intentional  help  from  adults.  As  they  grow  to  ma- 
turity, they  absorb  much  of  the  thought  and  many  of  the 
general  attitudes  of  the  community  in  which  they  are 
reared.  There  is  then,  an  intentional  and  an  uninten- 
tional instruction  given  by  each  generation  to  the  succeed- 
ing generation.  Much  that  might  profitably  be  omitted 
from  the  heritage  of  the  race  is  carried  from  one  genera- 
tion to  the  other  by  more  or  less  unintentional  teach- 
ing. The  best  elements  of  the  racial  heritage  are  either 
imperfectly  transmitted  by  unintentional  teaching,  or  are 
entirely  incapable  of  being  so  transmitted.  The  child  will 
not  learn  to  speak  properly,  or  to  be  an  eloquent  master  of 
his  mother  tongue  without  careful  and  purposeful  instruc- 
tion. He  will  master  barely  enough  of  the  technique  of 
speech  to  meet  his  more  primitive  needs.  He  will  not  be- 
come an  accomplished  musician  or  artisan  without  long 
and  patient  educational  guidance.  Religion  is  the  highest 
attainment  of  the  race  and  of  all  the  constituents  of  our 
social  heritage,  it  is  most  poorly  transmitted  by  the  acci- 
dental and  unintentional  mode  of  education.  The  re- 
ligious instinct  is  deeply  planted  in  man's  nature,  but  un- 
guided  it  quickly  assumes  grotesque  forms.  Communities 
characterized  by  neglect  of  religious  educational  activity 
soon  shpw  unmistakable  signs  of  reversion  toward  pagan- 
ism, ylf  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  to  conquer  the  earth,  it 
must  be  efficiently  taught  by  each  generation  of  Christians 
to  the  succeeding  generation.  This  teaching  task  is 
worthy  of  the  best  of  our  time,  the  best  of  our  effort,  the 
best  of  our  prayers.  Our  generation  must  not  squander  its 
religious  heritage,  neither  ought  it  to  lay  it  away  in  a  nap- 
kin. It  must  transmit  the  spiritual  treasures  of  the  centu- 
ries undiminished  and  enriched  to  the  coming  generation 
if  it  would  perform  its  part  in  the  eternal  plan  of  God. 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  88 

5.  Developments  in  secular  educational  science. 

Education  is  both  an  art  and  a  science.  Education  as  a 
science  has  developed  greatly  within  the  past  ten  years. 
Secular  education  is  rapidly  passing  out  of  the  epoch  of 
personal  opinion  supported,  in  part,  by  individual  ex- 
perience and,  in  part,  by  pure  theory.  It  is  coming  into 
the  epoch  of  scientific  measurements,  established  standards, 
and  demonstrated  results.  Secular  educational  scientists 
are  fairly  well  agreed  on  several  principles  that  are  of  no 
small  importance  in  religious  education  and  which  magnify 
the  importance  of  religious  nurture.  Their  researches 
lead  them  to  think  of  education  as  the  developing  of  the 
inherent  capacities  of  the  child.  Proper  educational  stimuli 
cause  the  growth  of  that  which  lies  within  the  child's  soul, 
in  embryo.  All  the  characteristics  of  the  grandest  human 
personality  the  world  has  ever  known,  lay  once  within 
some  child  soul,  as  the  oak  lies  in  the  acorn.  Education 
created  nothing,  at  all,  it  wTas  only  the  agency  which  stimu- 
lated growth  and  nourished  it.  There  is  no  question,  but 
that  God  has  implanted  in  every  normal  child  soul  vast 
capacities  for  religious  growth.  The  development  of  these 
capacities  is  dependent  on  nurture  and  proper  stimulation. 
The  infinite  Father  is  not  willing  that  any  of  these  little 
ones  should  perish,  and  they  need  not  if  we  will  but  do  our 
part.  As  the  acorn  needs  the  contact  of  the  moist  soil  and 
the  warmth  of  the  sunlight  in  order  that  it  may  grow  into 
an  oak;  so  the  child  soul  needs  to  be  brought  into  contact 
with  the  religious  heritage  of  its  ancestors  through  the  warm 
and  vitalizing  instruction  of  a  parent  or  teacher  that  it  may 
grow  into  a  religious  consciousness.  But  perhaps  some  one 
wrill  say,  "Where  does  God  come  in;  if  the  genesis  of  religion 
is  as  you  say?"  Everywhere!  In  the  love  tones  of  a 
mother's  prayer;  in  the  Bible  story  the  teacher  tells.  He  is 
not  confined  to  the  sudden,  unexpected,  and  mysterious 
things.    He  is  the  All  and  in  all.    Do  not  understand  me  to 


34  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

say  that  God  is  confined  to  the  agencies  seen  of  men. 
[Mysticism  is  the  soul  of  religion  and  I  consider  it  the 
greatest  of  all  realities.  The  soul  of  God  touches  the 
child  soul  and  the  gracious  hand  of  the  Christ  is  laid  on 
little  children  as.  of  old.  Let  me  say  it  once  again;  God 
will  do  his  part,  if  we  do  ours.  We  should  not  put  forth 
our  fear  of  interfering  with  the  divine  prerogatives  as  an 
excuse  for  being  slothful  servants. 

Secular  educators  are  fairly  well  agreed  that  the  child 
consciousness  comes  into  existence  unmoral,  but  with 
an  irrepressible  tendency  to  react  toward  environment 
with  some  sort  of  activity.  The  child's  acts  leave  each  its 
record.  They  are  built  into  the  warp  and  woof  of  character. 
If  bad  things  to  do  are  convenient  and  good  things  to  do 
hard  to  find,  the  child  will  do  bad  things  and  become  bad. 
Religious  education  must  not  only  have  a  course  of 
information  but  a  program  of  activities.  One  is  as  im- 
portant as  the  other.  The  including  of  expressional  activi- 
ties in  the  religious  educational  program  is  a  sign  of  the 
growing  appreciation  of  the  educational  agencies  of  the 
church.  Through  their  researches  in  secular  education 
,  these  investigators  have  helped  church  people  to  see  more 
'  clearly  the  importance  of  their  own  educational  task. 

6.  More  extensive  knowledge  concerning  the  great 
religions  of  the  world.  Non-Christian  religions  have 
been  studied  more  intensively  and  more  sympathetically 
during  the  past  half  century  than  was  ever  the  case  be- 
fore. Able  scholars  have  turned  their  attention  toward  the 
history  of  these  religions  and  toward  the  analysis  of  their 
systems  of  belief  and  the  discovery  of  the  sources  of  their 
power  over  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men.  It  has  been 
noted  that  every  religion  which  has  spread  over  large 
areas  of  the  earth,  and  maintained  itself  through  centu- 
ries, has  had  a  powerful  teaching  ministry.  With  the 
possible     exception    of     Mohammedanism     educational 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  35 

agencies  have  been  the  primary  implements  for  propa- 
gating these  faiths.  Wandering  teachers  carried  Bud- 
dhism from  India  through  the  vast  stretches  of  China 
and  to  far-away  Japan.  Without  its  great  educational 
centers,  like  that  at  Cairo,  Mohammedanism  would  have 
become  long  ago  but  an  incident  of  history.  The  marvelous 
racial  tenacity  and  religious  individuality  of  the  Jew  is  due 
to  the  fact  that  in  ancient  times  the  Hebrew  people  learned 
to  carry  their  religious  treasures  in  their  hearts  and  to 
teach  them  diligently  to  their  children.  There  is  not  a 
pagan  religion  of  the  present  day,  nor  of  antiquity,  which 
does  not,  or  did  not  have  its  profoundly  educative  rites  for 
children  and  youth.  Often  the  only  distinctively  educa- 
tional activity  in  these  pagan  communities  of  antiquity 
was  religious. 

Is  Christianity  different  from  all  other  religions  in  this 
respect?  There  are  no  reasons  for  believing  that  it  is. 
Indeed,  there  are  many  reasons  for  believing  that  the 
teaching  agency  is  more  fundamental  in  the  Christian 
economy  and  more  essential  to  the  success  of  the  Christian 
program  than  is  the  case  with  any  other  religion  of  the 
world.  The  practice  and  last  instructions  of  its  Founder 
would  seem  to  settle  that.  It  is  also  indicated  by  the  most 
outstanding  facts  of  Church  history. 

7.  Experiences  in  great  reform  movements.  The 
task  of  a  great  reform  movement,  like  that  of  national 
prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic,  is  in  many  respects  analo- 
gous to  the  task  of  the  Christian  Church.  Each  must 
win  to  a  new  allegiance  individuals  who  have  been  an- 
tagonistic or  indifferent  to  the  ends  sought.  The  ultimate 
triumph  of  each  is  dependent  to  a  large  degree  upon  wide- 
spread, thorough,  and  persistent  educational  propaganda. 
In  the  end,  most  great  reforms  have  had  to  turn  away,  in 
a  measure,  from  forensic  disputations  in  courts  and  legisla- 
tive halls  and  to  lay  a  surer  foundation  for  ultimate  success 


36  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

through  the  process  of  teaching  the  principles  involved  in 
the  controversy  to  children  and  youths.  This  was  certainly 
the  case  in  the  temperance  movement.  The  first  efforts 
for  prohibition  more  than  a  half  century  ago  were  quickly 
and  strikingly  successful.  Many  states  passed  laws  pro- 
hibiting the  liquor  traffic.  Complete  victory  seemed  just 
at  hand.  But  no  reform  can  safely  outgrow  its  own 
educational  preparation.  The  right  foundations  had  not 
been  laid.  A  period  of  reaction  began.  Prohibition  was 
repudiated  in  all  but  one  or  two  states.  When  a  great 
reform  begins,  succeeds  for  a  while,  and  then  fails,  further 
progress  is  doubly  difficult.  The  unclean  spirit  comes  back 
with  seven  others  more  evil  than  himself,  and  the  last 
state  of  the  nation  becomes  worse  than  the  first.  That  the 
prohibition  cause  should  have  ultimately  won  after  this 
initial  failure  is  proof  of  its  inherent  justice  and  truth.  Its 
triumph  is  also  a  striking  demonstration  of  the  efficacy  of 
the  methods  used.  After  the  tide  of  reaction  had  swept 
nearly  a  dozen  states  back  into  the  liquor-licensing  prac- 
tice, the  temperance  leaders  saw  the  necessity  for  a  wider 
and  deeper  educational  program  for  the  movement.  They 
turned  to  the  children.  Temperance  instruction  was 
introduced  into  the  public-school  curriculum.  Books  on 
physiology  had  a  chapter  on  the  circulation  which  ended 
with  a  section  telling  of  the  effects  of  alcohol  on  the  heart, 
lungs,  and  blood  vessels;  another  on  the  nervous  system 
ending  with  a  section  on  the  effects  of  alcohol  on  the  brain, 
spinal  cord,  and  nerves;  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  book. 
Many  public-school  teachers  taught  these  temperance 
lessons  with  much  enthusiasm.  The  sellers  of  dissipation, 
usually  wiser  for  their  own  generation  than  the  children  of 
light,  were  caught  napping.  They  understood  very  well 
the  art  of  political  manipulation  whereby  legislatures  and 
courts  were  induced  to  do  their  will;  but  the  instruction 
of  children  was  a  means  of  propaganda  beyond  their  range 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  37 

of  experiences.  Perhaps  they,  for  a  time,  thought  of  the 
new  venture  as  a  harmless  diversion  for  the  temperance 
"cranks."  But  they  soon  became  alarmed  and  began 
vigorous  action  looking  toward  the  banishing  of  the 
temperance  instruction  from  the  public  schools.  They 
were  strong  enough  to  accomplish  their  designs  in  many 
states;  but  the  seeds  of  their  undoing  had  been  scattered 
in  fertile  ground.  They  could  not  uproot  the  teachers' 
sowing.  When  the  boys  and  girls  who  had  received  this 
temperance  instruction,  in  their  youth,  grew  to  manhood 
and  womanhood,  they  put  the  liquor  dealers  out  of  busi- 
ness. 

Christianity  is  the  greatest  of  all  reform  movements.  It 
includes  them  all.  Its  goal  is  the  establishing  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  In  this  sublime  enterprise, 
man  is  a  colaborer  with  God.  Among  the  instrumentalities 
which  God  has  given  man  for  the  accomplishment  of  man's 
part  of  the  task,  none  is  greater  than  education.  Religious  / 
education  has  the  stamp  of  the  divine  approval  resting 
upon  it.  God  commends  it  in  his  Word.  "Train  up  a  child 
in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  even  when  he  is  old  he  will 
not  depart  from  it."  He  cooperates  with  it  and  gives  it 
fruit  in  due  season.  He  uses  it  in  the  transformation  of 
individual  lives,  in  the  exalting  of  community  and  national 
ideals. 

Leaders  in  some  departments  of  church  activity  see  this 
more  clearly  than  leaders  in  other  departments.  People 
interested  in  missions  saw  it  some  ten  years  ago  and 
organized  missionary  education.  The  fruits  of  the  instruc- 
tion they  have  been  giving  is  beginning  to  bear  fruit. 
Many  a  local  church  might  profitably  give  educational 
activities  a  larger  place  in  its  program.  If  the  children  were 
properly  cared  for,  there  would  be  less  need  for  feverish 
anxiety  lest  not  enough  adult  and  paying  members  be 
cotten  into  the  church  to  keep  it  off  the  rocks  of  financial 


38  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

insolvency.  The  author  is  not  pleading  for  less  extensive 
and  less  earnest  efforts  to  reach  adults,  but  for  more  exten- 
sive and  more  earnest  efforts  to  hold  children.  Some 
churches  doubtless  neglect  childhood  because  of  a  feeling 
that  work  with  children  is  a  slow  way  of  building  up  a 
church.  They  feel  that  the  fruits  of  such  labor  are  long- 
delayed.  They  feel  that  a  boy  of  ten  will  not  be  of  very 
much  help  to  the  church  for  ten  or  fifteen  years,  at  least. 
Their  feeling  is  doubly  erroneous.  The  Church  full  of 
children,  and  which  children  love  is  a  Church  honored  of 
the  Christ.  In  the  second  place  it  is  by  no  means  sure  that 
the  man  who  joins  the  Church  at  thirty-five  will  reach  the 
goal  of  efficient  church  membership  before  the  lad  who 
joins  at  ten.  Educational  preparation  is  necessary  in  both 
cases  but  the  boy  learns  faster  than  the  man. 

8.  Recent  demonstrations  of  the  power  of  educa- 
tion to  transform  national  life.  The  seventy  year 
period  which  was  characterized  by  a  growing  apprecia- 
tion of  the  importance  of  religious  education  has  witnessed 
several  cases  in  which  the  ideals  and  characteristics  of  an 
entire  nation  have  been  changed  in  a  marked  degree 
under  educational  influences.  Statesmen  have  come  to 
appreciate  as  never  before  the  importance  of  education  in 
national  and  international  matters.  Something  of  this 
deeper  appreciation  of  secular  education  has  been  re- 
flected upon  religious  education. 

Twenty  years  under  the  leadership  of  American  educa- 
tors has  done  a  hundred  times  more  for  the  Philippine 
Islands  than  four  hundred  years  of  military  occupation 
accomplished.  In  less  than  two  generations,  Japan 
leaped  across  the  gulf  which  separates  modern  constitu- 
tional government  from  medieval  feudalism.  Changes 
which  took  hundreds  of  years  in  other  nations  were  accomp- 
lished by  Japan  in  fifty  because  in  the  first  case  an  edu- 
cational system  had  to    .e  slowly  and  painfully  evolved. 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  39 

whereas  in  the  case  of  Japan  it  was  taken  over  ready-made 
from  neighboring  nations.  Even  more  wonderful  results 
are  being  wrought  in  China.  Modern  education  never  had 
a  harder  task  than  it  faced  twenty  years  ago  in  China. 
The  Chinese  had  an  educational  system  of  their  own.  It 
was  hoary  with  antiquity,  and  they  almost  worshiped  it; 
hut  it  has  met  complete  defeat  in  its  battle  with  twentieth 
century  educational  methods  and  ideals. 

Education  has  been  used  so  uniformly  to  bless  mankind 
that  it  is  hard  for  us  to  think  of  it  in  any  other  role;  but 
the  most  colossal  illustration  of  the  power  of  education  to 
transform  the  life  and  thought  of  a  whole  nation  is  of 
another  kind.  In  Germany  education  was  prostituted  to 
unholy  ends  by  a  ruling  military  caste.  Through  a  wonder- 
fully efficient  school  system  this  military  caste  imposed 
upon  the  German  people  a  conception  of  the  state  inher- 
ently pagan  and  immoral.  That  education  could  have 
turned  the  naturally  kind-hearted  German  people  into 
devastators  more  cruel  than  Apaches,  seems  hard  to  believe. 
That  the  masses  of  Germany  should  have  been  almost 
completely  educated  away  from  their  own  interests  into 
blind  submission  and  unthinking  loyalty  to  a  system  so 
contrary  to  all  the  currents  of  human  progress,  is  amazing. 
And  yet  the  military  caste  of  Prussia  did  this  by  working 
for  some  forty  years  through  the  German  schools — did  it 
so  effectively  that  millions  of  their  victims  were  willing  to 
die  for  the  organization  that  had  victimized  them.  Edu- 
cation did  it.  Venerable,  saintly  looking  professors  taught 
that  the  ethics  of  Jesus  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  rela- 
tionships of  nations,  that  the  ideal  for  the  nation  is  not 
righteousness  but  power,  that  war  is  the  highest  expression 
of  civilization,  that  a  nation  too  weak  to  protect  itself  has 
no  rights  a  strong  nation  is  bound  to  respect.  The  world 
had  never  before  seen  the  prostitution  of  education  to 
such  selfish  and  unholy  ends. 


40  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

In  these  after-war  days  we  are  very  naturally  asking 
ourselves  whether  the  power  which  wrought  such  fun- 
damental and  far-reaching  perversions  may  not  be  used  as 
effectively  in  establishing  truth,  righteousness,  and  brother- 
hood among  men.  We  know  what  to  teach.  God  has 
shown  us  by  his  Son.  We  can  build  a  system  of  education 
as  efficient  as  Germany  ever  saw.  The  nation  which  will 
really  take  Jesus  as  its  Guide,  Model,  and  Teacher,  educa- 
ting its  children  and  youth  in  the  universal  brotherhood 
and  self-sacrificing  service  which  he  taught,  in  harmony 
with  which  he  lived,  and  in  defense  of  which  he  died,  will 
bring  about  mightier  transformations  for  good  than  the 
German  educational  system  did  for  evil.  Such  a  nation  will 
fulfill  the  sublime  admonition  once  uttered  by  a  Hebrew 
prophet  but  never  fulfilled  by  the  Hebrew  nation;  "Arise, 
shine;  for  the  fight  is  come,  and  the  glory  of  Jehovah  is 
risen  upon  thee." 

9.  A  changed  conception  as  to  the  scope  and 
function  of  religion.  For  some  years  there  has  been  a 
growing  tendency  to  identify  religion  with  the  whole  of  life. 
Going  to  church,  reading  the  Bible,  saying  prayers — these 
acts  are  just  as  religious  as  they  ever  were,  but  they  are  no 
longer  looked  upon  as  comprising  the  major  part  of  relig- 
ious activities.  All  a  person  does,  thinks,  says,  is  the  ex- 
pression of  a  religious  life  within  or  an  evidence  of  the  lack 
of  it.  The  scope  of  things  considered  to  have  religious 
significance  has  been  greatly  enlarged.  This  enlarged  con- 
ception as  to  the  field  of  religion  has  resulted  in  a  somewhat 
changed  conception  of  the  function  of  religion.  Our  fore- 
fathers didn't  express  it  quite  that  way,  but  somehow  we 
feel  that  they  thought  of  religion  as  primarily  a  means  of 
getting  one  into  a  heaven  after  the  present  life  has  ended. 
Religion  is  an  essential  for  the  largest  and  truest  living 
in  the  present  existence.  It  is  the  duty  of  everyone'to 
serve  the  Lord  diligently  here  and  now  and  to  help  set  up 


THE  PLACE  OF  RELIGIOUS  EDUCATION  41 

his  Kingdom  in  the  world.  That  is  making  the  best  pre- 
paration for  the  life  in  the  world  to  come.  Such  a  view 
is  not,  at  all,  the  result  of  any  failing  faith  in  the  hereafter 
of  the  soul.  In  the  Father's  house  are  many  mansions 
and  if  it  were  not  so  he  would  have  told  us. 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  this  enlarged  conception,  as 
to  the  function  of  religion,  in  the  life  that  now  is,  tends  to 
magnify  the  importance  of  education.  So  long  as  religion 
was  thought  of  as  functioning  primarily  for  the  life  to 
come,  it  was  easy  to  think  of  its  being  but  slightly  related 
to  the  slow  developmental  processes  of  education.  Many 
of  our  forefathers  believed  that  we  are  fitted  for  heaven  by 
one  divine  act,  experienced  at  conversion;  that  this  act 
takes  place  without  much  dependence  on  any  educational 
preparation;  and  that  it  needs  no  after-conversion 
educational  program  to  insure  its  permanency.  It  is  easy 
to  see  how  they  came  to  think  of  education  as  having  a 
very  subordinate  place  in  the  processes  of  individual  sal- 
vation. The  religious  educator  of  to-day  does  not  nec- 
essarily differ  from  his  forefathers  in  any  of  the  essential 
conceptions  of  the  redemptive  process.  He  does,  however, 
see  God  working  in  a  wider  range  than  his  forefathers  did, 
in  the  developmental  agencies  leading  up  to  conversion 
experiences  and  in  the  enlarging  and  sustaining  powers 
which  a  right  educational  program  throws  around  the  new- 
born soul  when  the  Church  is  doing  her  task  in  an  efficient 
manner. 

10.  The  cessation  of  theological  controversies  and 
a  turning  of  the  religious  mind  of  the  times  back 
to  the  teachings  and  example  of  Jesus.  The  phrase 
"back  to  Christ"  has  been  used  in  a  rather  loose  way, 
and  some  unfortunate  conceptions  have  come  to  be  asso- 
ciated with  it.  It  names,  however,  a  certain  tendency 
of  modern  religious  thought  which  has  received  no  other 
designation.     Little    proof    is    needed    to    convince    the 


42  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

person  of  average  intelligence  that  the  age  of  theological 
controversy  amongst  Protestant  sects  is  fortunately  at  an 
end.  We  have,  in  a  large  measure,  ceased  to  argue  about 
Jesus,  and  have  turned  once  more  to  a  reverent  study  of 
his  teachings,  acts,  and  to  the  message  of  his  life.  We 
find  that  he  was  the  great  Teacher,  who,  by  his  precepts, 
example,  and  final  instructions  emphasized  the  import- 
ance of  the  educational  functions  of  religion.  The  world 
must  be  taught  to  know  all  he  taught,  all  he  did,  all  he 
felt.  The  world  must  know  him,  not  merely  a  definition 
concerning  him.  So  great  is  he,  so  high,  so  deep,  so  in- 
finite, that  the  task  must  begin  at  the  cradle  and  go  on 
through  the  whole  of  life. 


CHAPTER  II 

Inadequacy  of  the   Customary  Educa- 
tional Agencies  of  the  Church 


\ 


CHAPTER  II 

Inadequacy  of  the  Customary  Educational  Agencies 
of  the  Church 

The  growing  appreciation  of  religious  education  which 
has  been  sketched  in  the  preceding  chapter  has  been 
accompanied  by  a  growing  conviction  that  the  customary 
educational  agencies  of  the  Church  are  inadequate  to  the 
task  which  has  been  assigned  to  them.  If  religious  educa- 
tion is  one  of  the  most  important  agencies  given  to  the 
Church  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world,  the  Church 
ought  to  organize,  equip,  and  maintain  the  best  possible 
system  of  religious  education.  Most  people  of  our  country 
who  care  for  religious  things  and  at  the  same  time  think 
logically  about  them,  already  agree  as  to  the  primary 
importance  of  religious  education  as  an  agency  for  world 
evangelization.  We  must  not  suppose,  however,  that  the 
organization,  equipment,  and  maintenance  of  a  thoroughly 
satisfactory  system  of  religious  education  will  immediately 
appear  without  persistent  and  strenuous  effort  on  the  part 
of  all  who  are  interested  in  this  great  cause.  The  tradi- 
tional economy  of  the  Church  is  exceedingly  hard  to 
change.  Many  fundamental  changes  of  program  and  of 
emphasis  must  take  place  before  the  educational  function 
of  the  Church  is  given  proper  attention  and  opportunity 
commensurate  with  its  importance.  For  many  years 
church  buildings  have  been  constructed,  church  organiza- 
tions planted,  and  ministers  educated  without  much 
thought  for  the  teaching  function  of  the  Church.  It  will 
take  time,  patience,  and  tact  to  bring  about  changes  in 
these  matters. 

Two  things  ought  to  be  accomplished  before  a  church 

45 


4G  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

undertakes  to  supplement  its  educational  program  by  the 
organization  of  a  week-day  church  school.  First,  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  congregation  ought  to  be  won  to 
a  deep  conviction  of  the  importance  of  religious  education 
and  to  enthusiastic  support  of  that  branch  of  church  work. 
The  organization  of  these  schools  is  a  task  involving  some 
difficult  problems,  and  success  is  rendered  doubtful  unless 
the  pastor  and  his  workers  have  behind  them  a  fairly 
united  and  interested  constituency.  In  the  second  place 
t  the  congregation  must  be  brought  to  see  the  inadequacy 
of  the  present-day  educational  agencies  of  the  Church. 
Facts  thought  to  be  useful  in  securing  the  first  of  these 
desired  ends  have  been  presented  in  the  preceding  chapter. 
The  presentation  of  facts  useful  in  securing  the  second  is 
the  aim  of  this  chapter.  Pastors  wishing  to  introduce 
week-day  religious  instruction  into  their  church  programs 
Mould  do  well  to  present  as  much  evidence  as  possible  on 
the  two  points  already  suggested,  and  to  carry  on  such  an 
informational  program  as  will  bring  these  evidences  home 
to  as  many  members  of  their  churches  as  they  can  reach. 
1.  The  time  at  present  available  for  religious  in- 
struction is  inadequate  and  its  distribution  is  un- 
pedagogical.  If  we  count  the  whole  Sunday-school  hour 
as  possessing  educational  value,  the  maximum  time  pro- 
vided for  Protestant  children  through  this  agency  would 
be  only  fifty  hours  a  year.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the 
average  Sunday  school  secures  more  than  a  half  hour  of 
really  educational  work  each  Sunday.  This  would  make 
the  total  time  for  a  year  twenty-five  hours  for  each  child 
making  a  perfect  record  of  attendance,  summer  and  winter. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  most  Sunday-school  children  do  not 
attend  Sunday  school  more  than  half  of  the  time.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  time  allowance  for  Protestant  religious 
education  is  meager,  at  best.  The  parochial  schools  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  provide  for  two  hundred  hours 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES        47 

of  religious  instruction  a  year  in  their  curriculum  plans. 
Some  Jewish  children  are  receiving  as  much  as  three  hun- 
dred and  thirty-five  hours  a  year,  through  the  Hebrew 
week-day  schools  and  Sunday  schools.  It  is  possible  that 
some  of  us,  as  Protestants,  believe  that  our  religion  has  a 
deep  and  appealing  power  not  possessed  by  any  other.  This 
faith  in  our  own  religion,  however,  gives  us  no  warrant  for 
believing  that  it  is  less  dependent  upon  educative  agencies 
than  the  other  religions  of  the  world;  neither  does  it  justify 
our  subjecting  it  to  the  heavy  handicap  indicated  in  the 
figures  just  quoted.  A  true  faith  in  our  religion  as  the 
light  of  the  world  and  in  its  divine  origin  and  continuous 
divine  control,  spurs  the  believer  on  to  more  vigorous 
action;  it  does  not  lull  him  into  a  state  of  slothful  ease. 

Moreover,  our  meager  time  allowance  for  religious  in- 
struction is  so  unpedagogically  distributed  over  the  year 
as  to  render  any  valuable  results  doubly  difficult  of  attain- 
ment. Half -hour  lessons  a  week  apart  is  a  poor  teaching 
arrangement.  Continuity  of  instruction  under  such  a 
system  is  well-nigh  impossible.  Many  educators  believe 
that  a  few  weeks  of  continuous  and  intensive  training  is 
far  more  fruitful  than  fifty-two  weeks  of  Sunday-school  in- 
struction. If  religious  education  is  to  be  efficient  it  mu:  t  < 
possess  unity  and  plan.  It  will  never  accomplish  much 
if  the  recitation  periods  are  so  far  apart  that  most  of  the 
instruction  takes  the  form  of  unrelated  items  of  informa- 
tion. Minds  of  children  are  not  able  to  carry  over  a  line 
of  thought  from  one  recitation  period  to  another  when 
the  interval  separating  them  is  a  seven-day  interval.  It 
can  be  done  with  pupils  of  high-school  age  who  make 
outside  preparation  for  their  recitations,  but  even  there 
it  is  not  regarded  as  a  desirable  arrangement,  by  most 
educators. 

This  matter  of  time  for  religious  instruction  is  a  con- 
sideration of  basic  importance.     There  can  be  no  substi- 


48  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

tute  for  the  necessary  time  provision  for  instruction. 
Trained  teachers  will  not  remedy  matters.  The  better 
the  teacher  is  prepared  for  her  task,  the  more  important 
it  is  to  furnish  her  the  necessary  time  for  doing  her  task 
properly.  The  Sunday-school  teacher  who  comes  into  her 
class  without  having  made  any  preparation  for  the  teach- 
ing of  the  lesson  is  sometimes  glad  to  hear  the  superintend- 
ent's bell  announcing  the  close  of  the  recitation  period; 
the  competent  and  conscientious  teacher  never  is.  Thor- 
ough and  comprehensive  lesson  material  will  not  relieve 
the  time  limitations  resting  on  the  Sunday  school  but 
make  them  more  apparent.  Good  equipment  has  exactly 
the  same  effect.  Maps,  pictures,  charts,  handwork,  ster- 
eoscope views — the  use  of  all  these  requires  time,  and 
they  would  be  provided  more  generally  by  Sunday-school 
authorities  if  there  was  time  enough  to  use  them  in  the 
Sunday-school  recitation  period.  So  we  see  that  the  time 
problem  is  fundamental  and  touches  many  other  problems 
of  religious  education.  The  best  results  from  other  lines 
of  religious  educational  improvement  will  be  seriously 
impeded  until  we  solve  this  time  problem.  "More  time 
for  religious  education"  ought  to  be  the  slogan  of  religious 
educators  everywhere.  Twenty -five  hours  a  year  for 
religious  education  and  one  thousand  hours  a  year  for 
secular  education  is  not  a  just  ratio. 

2.  Protestant  religious  education  is  dependent 
upon  a  teaching  force  inadequate  as  to  numbers, 
and  often  imperfectly  prepared  for  the  task. 
Sunday-school  teachers,  as  a  whole,  are  doing  a  noble  and 
unselfish  service.  That  some  are  ill-prepared  for  their  work 
is  more  the  fault  of  the  Church  than  the  fault  of  individual 
teachers.  The  Church  has  not  made  provision  for  a 
teaching  force  spiritually  consecrated  and  professionally 
efficient.  Teachers  possessing  the  two  qualifications  named 
are  not  numerous  enough  "to  go  around."    Ten  thousand 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES         49 

pastors  and  Sunday-school  superintendents  are  saying 
'What  shall  we  do  for  teachers?"  There  is  no  mystery  in 
the  situation.  God  has  not  failed  to  keep  any  promise  of 
his.  Churches,  like  the  foolish  virgins,  have  found  their 
lamps  gone  dry  in  the  hour  of  need;  that  is  all.  It  is 
time  for  Protestant  churches  to  take  the  matter  of  teacher 
training  seriously.  No  course  of  study  that  can  be  mas- 
tered by  a  ten-year  old  child  in  a  few  weeks  will  longer 
suffice  for  the  training  of  religious  teachers.  There  must 
be  thorough  mastery  of  the  Bible,  the  understanding  of 
child  psychology,  the  acquiring  of  pedagogical  skill.  No 
suggestion  that  these  are  the  only  qualifications  for  the 
successful  teaching  of  religion,  is  intended.  It  is  not  even 
suggested  that  the  qualifications  named  are  the  most 
important.  A  deep  spirituality,  a  sincere  love  for  child- 
hood and  youth,  a  conscience  tender  in  all  matters  of 
personal  responsibility,  these  are  elements  of  primary 
importance  in  the  personality  of  the  true  teacher  of  reli- 
gion; but  even  these  qualities  can  be  developed  by  the 
right  kind  of  training,  and  are  often  lacking  because  the 
training  given  to  the  prospective  teacher  of  religion  was 
meager,  fragmentary,  and  accidental.  Full,  unified,  and 
purposeful  preparation  of  its  teachers  would  be  a  policy 
of  much  wisdom  on  the  part  of  the  Church  and  the  teachers 
have  a  right  to  expect  it  of  the  Church. 

3.  Most  of  the  educational  agencies  of  the  Church 
are  quite  destitute  of  any  real  supervision  of  teachers 
and  instruction.  The  Sunday-school  superintendent 
presides  at  the  opening  exercies,  of  the  school  and  at  the 
close.  Sometimes  he  looks  after  such  matters  as  the 
securing  of  substitute  teachers  for  teacherless  classes.  But 
these  activities  do  not  constitute  supervision  in  the  public- 
school  sense  of  the  term.  A  real  supervision  is  that  in 
which  there  is  carefully  gathered  information  as  to  how 
the  teacher  prepares  for  her  recitation  periods,  how  she 


50  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

presents  the  lesson  materials  to  her  classes,  and  what 
results  she  attains  through  her  classroom  instruction. 
After  gathering  this  information,  the  superintendent  is  in 
a  position  to  commend  the  teacher  for  her  excellencies 
and  to  help  her  to  overcome  any  defects  which  may  have 
become  apparent  to  the  eye  of  the  skilled  educational 
specialist.  Whenever  this  ideal  is  presented  to  Sunday- 
school  superintendents,  they  are  very  apt  to  say,  "You 
can't  have  such  supervision  as  that  with  a  volunteer 
teaching  force."  That  may  be  true;  but  a  good  many 
considerations  go  to  show  that  the  lack  of  such  super- 
vision, in  the  Sunday  school,  is  often  due  to  the  superintend- 
ent's inability  to  give  it,  rather  than  to  the  teachers' 
unwillingness  to  receive  it.  Superintendents  are  not  to 
blame,  however,  for  the  supervising  of  instruction  is  a 
highly  technical  task,  and  demands  special  training.  Occa- 
sionally churches  are  fortunate  enough  to  secure  volunteer 
leaders  who  possess  the  requisite  preparation  for  the  edu- 
cational work  of  the  Church;  but  we  must  expect  most 
of  our  churches  to  be  without  really  adequate  supervision 
of  their  educational  agencies  until  such  a  time  as  the 
employment  of  directors  of  religious  education  becomes 
the  established  custom  of  the  Church. 

4.  The  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  receive 
inadequate  financial  support.  If  the  valuation  put 
upon  anything  by  a  people,  can  be  judged  by  the  amount 
of  money  they  are  putting  into  it,  we  must  conclude  that 
religious  education  is  not  highly  esteemed  by  Americans. 
Lead  pencils,  cigar  boxes,  chewing  gum,  almost  everything 
you  can  name,  rank  far  above  religious  education  as  com- 
modities for  which  our  money  is  spent.  When  we  compare 
the  amount  of  money  expended  for  the  religious  nurture 
of  children  and  youth  with  the  amount  expended  for 
tobacco,  automobiles,  travel,  and  the  "movies,"  it  makes 
us  feel  that,  after  all,  our  civilization  is  essentially  mate- 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES         51 

rialistic,  and  hedonistic,  lacking  in  any  high  conception  of 
spiritual  values.  We  have  not  found  the  pearl  of  great 
price,  nor  can  it  be  said  that  we  are  seriously  seeking  it. 

That  religious  instruction  should  receive  just  considera- 
tion and  adequate  financial  support  from  the  American 
people,  as  a  whole,  is  too  much  to  expect  at  our  present 
stage  of  spiritual  attainment,  as  a  nation;  but  we  would 
seem  to  be  justified  in  the  expectation  that,  within  the 
Church,  itself,  something  like  a  just  appreciation  of  the 
matter  should  prevail.  It  is  discouraging  to  discover  that 
in  this  regard,  matters  are  much  the  same,  in  the  Church, 
as  they  are  "in  the  world."  The  average  church  pays 
more  for  janitor  service,  more  for  a  choir,  more  for  light 
and  heat,  than  it  does  for  the  religious  instruction  of  its  own 
children.  The  fact  is,  the  conscience  of  the  Church  has 
never  been  developed  in  this  matter.  In  other  matters 
the  conscience  of  the  Church  has  been  cultivated.  With 
regard  to  the  foreign-mission  task,  there  is  a  growing 
conscience.  Intelligent  church  members  no  longer  refuse 
to  give  to  the  foreign-mission  enterprise,  if  they  are  worthy 
the  name  of  Christian.  They  see  that  it  is  a  Christian 
duty  to  do  so.  But  with  regard  to  the  teaching  function 
of  the  Church,  there  is  no  such  consciousness  of  obligation 
as  has  been  developed  in  the  matter  of  missions.  Even 
those  who  are  beginning  to  appreciate  the  importance  of 
the  educational  task  of  the  Church,  are,  for  the  most 
part,  still  laboring  under  the  delusion  that  it  can  be  accom- 
plished very  cheaply.  We  must  change  this  condition. 
Church  agencies  of  first-rate  importance  must  not  continue 
to  receive  seventh-rate  consideration. 

5.  The  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  are, 
in  many  cases,  poorly  housed  and  inadequately 
equipped.  The  rooms  dedicated  to  religious  instruction 
by  Protestant  churches  may  be  classified  as  good,  bad, 
indifferent,  and  scandalous.      Even  the   best  and   most 


52  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

expensively  equipped  church-school  rooms  are  apt  to  be 
but  poorly  adapted  to  educational  work.  The  properly 
lighted,  satisfactorily  ventilated,  artistically  decorated 
schoolroom,  with  abundant  blackboard  space,  comfortable 
individual  desks  securely  screwed  down  to  the  floor  and 
of  a  size  suited  to  the  pupils  who  are  to  occupy  them — 
these  are  some  of  the  products  of  many  years  of  public- 
school  evolution.  They  are  just  as  essential  for  an  efficient 
church  school  as  they  are  for  an  efficient  public  school; 
yet  the  Church  has  been  slow  to  appreciate  their  value 
and  slower  still  to  avail  itself  of  their  use.  There  has  been 
great  waste  of  money,  in  fitting  up  church-school  rooms, 
and  in  putting  up  church-school  buildings,  because  the 
people  in  charge  did  not  know  what  kind  of  rooms  and 
what  kinds  of  equipment  were  best  suited  to  educational 
uses. 

Many  Sunday  schools  long  ago  overflowed  the  quarters 
provided  for  them.  In  such  schools,  teachers  and  pupils 
have  gone  out  in  quest  of  some  place  where  they  could 
hope  for  that  seclusion  and  quiet  so  essential  to  any  large 
educational  accomplishment.  You  will  find  them  in  all 
sorts  of  unexpected  places.  They  may  be  found  up  in 
the  belfry  tower,  where  the  janitor  never  comes,  and  the 
cobwebs  hang  thick  on  rough  walls  and  gaunt  rafters. 
They  may  be  found  down  in  dark  and  damp  basement 
rooms  where  patches  of  plastering  have  fallen  off  the  ceiling 
and  other  patches  hang  in  dangerous  insecurity  over  the 
heads  of  Primary  tots.  Yet  many  of  these  same  churches 
have  spacious  auditoriums,  cushioned  pews,  stained-glass 
windows,  and  collection  plates  of  solid  silver.  It  is  strange 
why  some  churches,  in  everything  pertaining  to  the  adult 
life  of  the  church  and  community,  manifest  extreme  care; 
and  in  everything  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  the  child  life 
of  the  church  and  community,    manifest  extreme  neglect. 

6.  The  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  have 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES         53 

not  yet  been  furnished  with  an  adequate  and  other- 
wise satisfactory  course  of  study.  Most  denominations 
have  attempted  to  create  such  a  course;  some  of  them  have 
tried  it  repeatedly;  and  yet  no  course  yet  completed  has 
continued  to  be  satisfactory  very  long.  The  practice, 
almost  universally  used,  of  issuing  Sunday-school  lesson 
material  in  printed  slip  and  quarterly  pamphlet  form,  is 
unpedagogical  and  expensive.  It  is  time  to  discard  it 
for  a  system  of  religious  education  textbooks  suited  to 
the  needs  of  various  ages  of  Sunday-school  pupils.  Biblical 
material  will  doubtless  continue  to  be  the  subject  matter 
of  religious  education,  and  yet  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  no 
sweeping  exclusion  of  so-called  "extra-Biblical"  material 
will  be  attempted.  The  Bible  will  be  most  effectively 
taught  when  its  marvelous  range  of  spiritual  truths  are 
not  only  taught  in  the  Bible  setting  but  reenforced  by 
illustrations  from  history,  current  events,  nature,  art,  and 
literature.  We  do  not  need  to  go  outside  the  Bible  for 
religious  truth,  "the  opening  of  thy  words  giveth  light"; 
but  that  these  truths  may  be  rightly  apprehended  and  that 
they  may  be  most  fruitful  in  the  upbuilding  of  character, 
they  need  to  be  taught  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of  peda- 
gogy, not  in  defiance  of  them. 

7.  The  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  provide 
inadequate  expressional  activity.  Impression  without 
corresponding  expression  is  apt  to  be  transient,  imperfect, 
wasted,  sometimes  injurious.  What  would  you  think  of  a 
manual-training  teacher  who  expected  his  pupils  to  become 
skilled  in  the  use  of  plane  and  saw  by  sitting  in  their  seats 
and  listening  to  his  abstract  explanations  as  to  how  these 
tools  should  be  used?  How  much  would  they  learn  under 
such  instruction?  If  the  teacher  had  the  tools  in  his  own 
hands  and  actually  did  the  work  he  was  trying  to  teach, 
the  pupils  would  learn  a  good  deal  more,  but  even  then 
they  would  learn  nothing  perfectly.    Little  hands  would 


54  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

be  itching  to  get  hold  of  every  tool  as  soon  as  it  was  laid 
down  and  nothing  but  the  sternest  kind  of  discipline  would 
prevent  their  doing  it.  Nature  points  out  the  true  learning- 
process  by  implanting  within  the  child  an  irrepressible 
tendency  to  do  things.  Much  of  our  religious  education 
has  been  on  the  abstract  information  basis.  We  need  to 
remember  that  our  best  efforts  at  educating  the  young  are 
wasted,  in  a  large  degree,  unless  we  give  the  children  an 
opportunity  to  carry  our  information  over  into  action. 
We  must  parallel  our  curriculum  of  religious  instruction 
with  an  equal  program  of  religious  expression.  The 
noblest  religious  sentiments,  if  they  be  denied  expression, 
degenerate  into  weak  sentimentalities.  The  providing  of 
a  program  of  expressional  activities  fitted  to  the  religious 
educational  needs  of  children  and  youth  is  an  unsolved 
problem.  Some  Sunday  schools  get  in  some  such  expres- 
sional work  at  Thanksgiving,  Christmas,  and  other  special 
occasions,  but  this  is  not  enough.  We  need  a  program  for 
the  everyday  life  of  the  young  people  in  their  homes  and 
in  their  school  associations.  Perhaps  the  nearest  approach 
to  the  thing  needed  has  been  accomplished  by  the  Boy 
Scouts  with  their  daily  good  turn  standards. 

8.  The  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  are 
inadequately  correlated.  The  educational  task  of  the 
Church  is  one  task  and  the  educational  program  must  be 
one  program  if  it  is  to  function  properly.  The  educational 
agencies  of  the  Church  have  grown  up  independently  of 
one  another.  Each  is  under  its  own  leadership  and  plans 
its  own  program  of  activities.  In  most  churches  there  is 
no  overhead  organization  superintending  them  all,  and 
bringing  them  all  into  harmony.  It  is  little  wonder  that 
these  agencies  get  in  one  another's  way,  try  to  cover  the 
same  ground,  overlook  certain  important  phases  of  the 
whole  educational  task,  and  overemphasize  others.  What 
would  you  think  of  a  high  school  with  a  half-dozen  in- 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES         55 

structors,  each  one  of  whom  wandered,  at  will,  over  the 
whole  field  of  academic  studies,  chose  such  materials  as  he 
saw  fit,  held  his  classes  at  such  a  time  as  he  could  get, 
recognized  no  supervisory  authority,  and  never  entered 
into  consultation  with  his  fellow  instructors?  Yet  this 
picture  scarcely  overdoes  the  matter  in  its  attempt  to 
portray  the  conditions  existing  among  the  educational 
agencies  of  many  churches.  Correlation  of  the  educational 
activities  of  the  Church  will  mean  unity  of  plan  and 
efficiency  of  execution  through  a  division  of  labor. 

9.  The  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  are 
inadequately  distributed.  Much  of  the  spiritual 
illiteracy  of  American  children  and  youth  is  the  direct 
result  of  a  remarkably  faulty  distribution  of  religious 
educational  agencies.  Anyone  who  has  ever  surveyed  the 
Sunday  schools  of  a  town  or  city  and  compared  them  with 
the  public  schools  as  to  their  location,  attendance,  and 
other  matters  will  see,  at  once,  what  is  meant  by  the  term 
"faulty  distribution"  as  here  used.  At  least  three  phases 
of  faulty  distribution  are  manifest  to  anyone  who  has 
given  thought  to  the  matter. 

(1)  Small  Towns  and  the  Open  Country.  Careful 
computation  seems  to  indicate  that  there  are  some  ten 
thousand  small  towns  and  country  communities,  west  of 
the  Mississippi  River, which  have  no  religious  educational 
facilities  whatever.  There  are  a  good  many  east  of  the 
Mississippi  also.  In  the  same  region  it  is  also  probable  that 
there  are  ten  thousand  communities  which  are  trying  to 
support  more  Sunday  schools  than  are  necessary.  Hun- 
dreds of  villages  have  three  or  four  small  struggling 
schools  where  one  strong  school  could  do  the  work  more 
efficiently  and  more  economically.  One  town  of  1600 
people,  in  a  western  state,  has  one  excellent  public  school 
and  fourteen  poor  Sunday  schools.  In  the  same  state 
whole    counties    can    be    found    practically    destitute    of 


5G  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

religious  educational  agencies.  There  are  probably  enough 
Sunday  schools  in  most  of  our  western  territory  to  cover 
the  whole  field  fairly  well,  if  they  were  properly  distributed. 

This  breaking  down  of  our  religious  educational  program 
in  the  country  places  of  the  land  is  a  serious  matter.  The 
country  churches  feed  the  city  churches,  just  as  the  springs 
and  brooks  of  the  highlands  feed  the  rivers  of  a  continent. 
If  the  springs  fail,  the  rivers  will  go  dry.  We  need  a 
redistribution  of  responsibilities  among  Evangelical  Pro- 
testant denominations,  for  our  rural  communities,  some- 
what like  that  which  exists  in  many  foreign-mission  fields. 
The  interest  of  the  Kingdom  demands  it. 

(2)  Cities  of  from  2500  to  25,000  Population.  In  cities 
of  the  class  indicated  a  striking  uniformity  of  religious 
educational  conditions  is  found.  Such  cities  usually  have 
from  a  dozen  to  forty  different  Protestant  denominations. 
By  far  the  greater  part  of  these  have  only  one  church  in 
the  town.  Some  of  the  stronger  denominations,  in  the 
larger  cities  of  this  group  may  have  three  or  four  churches, 
but  in  most  cases  all  but  one  of  them  are  small  home- 
mission  enterprises.  Now,  nearly  every  one  of  the  denomi- 
nations, when  they  located  in  the  city,  looked  upon  the 
whole  city  as  a  parish.  The  denominational  leaders  sought, 
therefore,  a  central  location,  because  such  a  site  would  be 
most  easily  accessible  from  all  parts  of  their  parish.  So  it 
has  come  about  in  hundreds  of  towns  that  all  the  stronger 
Protestant  churches  are  located  near  the  center  of  the  city, 
often  nearly  all  of  them  within  a  stone's  throw  of  one 
another.  But  out  in  the  suburbs  of  such  a  town  you  will 
often  find  large  areas  without  any  convenient  educational 
agencies,  and  in  other  sections  the  buildings  set  apart  for 
Sunday-school  purposes  are  small,  poorly  equipped, 
temporary  shacks.  The  large  churches  in  the  city  center 
have  the  buildings  and  equipment  necessary  to  care  for 
all  the  children  in  the  city,  but  they  can't  get  the  children; 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES        57 

the  small  and  struggling  churches  of  the  city  outskirts  are 
grappling  with  the  educational  tasks  of  the  Church  under 
a  heavy  handicap.  In  such  a  city,  you  will  find  the  largest 
and  finest  public-school  buildings  where  the  most  children 
are,  but  the  largest  and  best  equipped  Sunday-school 
rooms  where  the  fewest  children  are.  The  trouble  with 
us  is,  that  we  have  been  seeing  the  religious  instruction  of 
children  and  youth  as  a  denominational  problem  ex- 
clusively; we  must  come  to  see  that  it  is  also  a  community 
problem  in  the  solution  of  which  denominations  must 
cooperate  with  one  another. 

(3)  Cities  of  25,000  Population  and  Over.  In  cities  of 
more  than  twenty-five  thousand  people,  a  condition 
exactly  opposite  to  that  just  described  is  apt  to  appear. 
A  down-town  church  can  draw  adult  life  sometimes  from 
considerable  distances,  but  the  distance  from  which  it  can 
draw  the  child  life  of  the  region  is  very  much  less.  No 
church,  of  the  ordinary  type,  can  prosper  long  without 
contact  with  the  children.  The  first  effect  upon  a  church 
beginning  to  grapple  with  down-town  conditions  is  seen  in 
the  blighting  of  its  Sunday  school.  As  the  city  grows,  an 
exodus  of  churches  from  the  city  center  to  the  outlying 
districts  begins.  When  once  this  movement  begins,  it 
develops  rapidly.  The  churches  all  tend  to  go  at  once.  In 
a  few  years  the  center  of  the  city,  once  overchurched, 
begins  to  be  underchurched.  Like  an  aging  tree  the 
municipality  begins  to  decay  at  the  heart.  In  time,  vast 
areas  of  densely  populated  territory  in  the  central  portions 
of  the  city  are  found  to  be  without  adequate  church 
facilities  of  any  kind.  There  are  such  areas  in  several  of 
our  great  cities  where  more  than  fifty  thousand  people 
have  no  Evangelical  Protestant  church  agencies,  whatever. 
As  a  rule,  these  central  areas  of  our  larger  cities  are  either 
without  Protestant  educational  agencies,  or  supplied  with 
only  a  meager  equipment  of  mission  enterprises.    Evan- 


58  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

gelical  Protestant  influence  in  all  of  our  great  cities  is 
small;  in  some  it  is  practically  negligible.  If  our  Evan- 
gelical Protestantism  fails  in  the  country  places  and  in  the 
great  cities  of  the  land,  the  battle  will  be  lost  for  us.  It  is 
encouraging  to  know  that  in  some  of  our  cities  the 
Protestant  churches  are  coming  back  to  the  abandoned 
city  task  with  a  ministry  such  as  the  foreign-speaking 
multitudes  who  dwell  at  the  city's  heart  sorely  need.  Such 
churches  are  finding  these  brethren  from  other  lands 
responsive,  in  a  marked  degree,  to  the  touch  of  helpful 
Christian  fellowship,  and  their  children,  especially,  respond 
with  quick  enthusiasm  to  the  personal  contact  with  a  true 
teacher  of  religion. 

10.  The  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  are 
inadequately  dynamic.  Machinery  is  of  no  use  unless 
there  is  power  to  make  it  go.  We  ought  to  labor  to  remedy 
every  one  of  the  inadequacies  heretofore  named;  but  if 
we  are  successful  in  the  nine  cases  cited  and  fail  in  the 
tenth  we  shall  really  accomplish  but  little.  It  is  "not  by 
might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  Jehovah." 
If  the  Church  is  to  have  power  it  must  keep  right  with 
God.  If  we,  the  Protestant  Christian  bodies  of  America 
have  become  guilty  in  that  we  have  multiplied  our  divisions 
until  we  have  become  insensible  to  the  sin  of  schism;  if 
we  have  rent  the  body  of  Christ  over  trifling  matters;  if 
we  have  not  measured  up  to  the  splendid  ideals  of  universal 
equality  and  brotherhood  taught  in  the  life  and  precepts 
of  our  Lord;  we  must  repent.  We  won't  have  God's  power 
until  we  are  right  with  God.  If  things  are  not  going  right 
with  the  Church,  it  is  futile  for  us  to  pray  to  God  as  if 
the  fault  rested  with  him;  we  should  pray  and  act  as  if 
something  were  wrong  with  us.  A  New  Testament  writer 
speaks  of  the  "hindered  prayers"  of  those  who  are  not 
living  as  the  "heirs  of  the  grace  of  life."  An  Old  Testament 
general  who  had  lain  all  day  prostrate  upon  his  face,  in 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES         59 

prayer  to  Jehovah,  was  rebuked  for  that  kind  of  praying 
which  throws  the  responsibility  for  man-made  failures 
back  upon  God.  "And  Jehovah  said  unto  Joshua,  Get 
thee  up;  wherefore  art  thou  thus  fallen  upon  thy  face? 
Israel  hath  sinned;  yea,  they  have  even  transgressed  my 
covenant." 

As  a  result  of  the  inadequacies  mentioned,  the  results  of 
religious   educational   activities   are   unsatisfactory.     We 

Chart  No.  6 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL    ENROLLMENT 


Per  C 


EHT 


tNDERSON      IMDIMA 


must  not  congratulate  ourselves  too  highly  on  the  fact 
that  more  than  sixty  per  cent  of  all  additions  to  the  Church 
are  brought  in  by  means  of  the  Sunday  school.  Our 
exultation  in  this  matter  might  prove  to  be  a  good  deal 
like  the  exultation  of  a  schoolboy  over  the  fact  that  he 
received  a  mark  of  forty  per  cent  in  an  examination  in 
which  another  schoolboy  received  twenty  per  cent.  The 
apparently  good  showing  of  the  Sunday  school  may  not 


CO  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

be  due  so  much  to  the  fact  that  it  has  done  so  well,  as  to 
the  fact  that  other  agencies  of  the  Church  have  done  so 
poorly.  A  religious  educational  survey  of  a  typical  city 
of  twenty-five  thousand  people  throws  some  light  on  this 
matter.  More  extensive  studies,  in  many  other  places, 
tend  to  prove  that  the  results  here  set  forth  are  approxi- 
mately true  for  the  country  as  a  whole. 

The  numbers  along  the  bottom  of  Chart  No.  6  represent 
the  different  ages  of  children  and  young  people  in  the 
homes  surveyed.  The  numbers  at  the  left  indicate  the 
percentage  of  children  and  youth  of  each  age  enrolled  in 
Sunday  school.  Of  the  children  three  years  of  age,  fifteen 
per  cent  were  enrolled  in  the  Sunday  school,  or  other  reli- 
gious educational  agencies.  Thirty-three  per  cent  of  the 
children  four  years  of  age  were  enrolled  in  some  religious 
educational  organization.  It  will  be  noted  that  in  this 
particular  town  the  churches  were  not  succeeding  in  get- 
ting in  one  half  of  the  children  until  the  age  of  ten.  From 
ten  to  twelve  they  were  holding  one  half  of  them,  or  a  little 
more ;  but  beyond  twelve  they  were  holding  less  than  half. 
The  Sunday  schools  and  other  educational  agencies  of 
the  city  were  reaching  something  like  forty  per  cent  of 
the  children  and  youth  of  the  community.  Studies  in  other 
places  would  seem  to  indicate  that  this  would  be  a  generous 
estimate  for  the  country  as  a  whole.  Some  have  estimated 
that  in  New  York  City  not  more  than  twenty-five  per  cent 
of  the  children  and  youth  are  receiving  any  religious 
instruction,  worthy  of  the  name.  In  our  country,  there  is 
a  vast  army  of  children  and  youth  growing  up  in  spiritual 
illiteracy.  Some  investigators  have  estimated  the  number 
of  them  as  high  as  twenty -seven  millions.  These  young- 
people,  grown  to  maturity,  without  the  development  of 
their  God-given  religious  faculties,  go  on  to  swell  the  ranks 
of  another  vast  army  fifty-eight  millions  strong,  the  army 
of  America's  unchurched  population.    The  most  beautiful 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES         (il 

and  wonderful  thing  in  the  world  is  the  unfolding  life  of  a 
child  in  its  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  capacities. 
The  most  sadly  tragic  thing,  in  the  world,  is  for  a  human 
being  to  be  born,  to  live,  and  to  die  without  ever  having 
brought  to  fruition  more  than  an  infinitesimal  part  of  the 
inherent  soul  capacities  with  which  the  Creator  had 
endowed  the  living  spirit  within.    In  multiplied  millions  of 

Chart  No.  7 
How  Sunday   Schools  Are  ReachibbTheib   Coistituenct 

■ 1— Ml  Mil  ■nmnillB 


l> 


_ 


V/m  1>»  Swifts  Sc.UA 

souls  that  tragedy  is  going  steadily  on  because  of  the  fact 
that  unfolding  lives  are  spiritually  neglected. 

A  more  detailed  study  of  the  same  survey  is  shown  in 
Chart  No.  7  above.  It  was  desired  to  know  how  the 
different  denominations  were  meeting  their  responsibilities 
in  the  matter  of  reaching  with  their  educational  programs 
the  children  and  youth  who  were  dependent  on  them  for 
religious  nurture.  The  two  lines  following  the  name  of  each 


62  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

denomination,  represent  all  the  children  and  youth  from 
three  years  of  age  to  twenty-two  years  of  age  who  are 
members  of  families  belonging  to  that  denomination  or 
members  of  families  who  say  they  prefer  that  denomina- 
tion. The  upper  line  represents  the  per  cent  of  such 
children  and  youth  enrolled  in  Sunday  school;  the  lower 
line  represents  the  per  cent  of  such  children  and  youth  not 
enrolled  in  Sunday  school. 

Of  the  Methodist  constituency,  forty-five  per  cent  were 
enrolled  in  Sunday  school,  fifty-five  per  cent  were  not. 
The  Lutherans  were  making  the  best  showing  with  seventy- 
one  per  cent  enrolled  in  Sunday  school  and  twenty-nine 
per  cent  not  enrolled.  This  finding  is  probably  generally 
true.  It  has  been  stated  that,  of  all  Protestant  denomina- 
tions, the  Lutherans  are  most  successful  in  holding  their 
own  children  and  youth.  An  interesting  result  is  seen  in 
the  case  of  the  "No  preference"  people.  These  were  the 
people  who  said  they  had  no  preferences  as  to  denomina- 
tion. In  most  cases,  it  may  be  presumed,  this  lack  of 
preference  for  any  particular  denomination  was  due  to  a 
general  indifference  to  religious  matters.  People  who  are 
deeply  interested  in  religion  are  practically  always  members 
of  some  church.  Even  those  who  have  only  a  passing 
interest  in  religion,  usually  have  a  denominational  prefer- 
ence at  least.  In  these  "No  preference"  families,  eighty- 
seven  per  cent  of  the  children  and  young  folks  were  not 
enrolled  in  any  Sunday  school.  If  the  home  has  no  interest 
in  religion,  the  probability  that  the  children  of  that  home 
will  be  reached  and  held  by  the  educational  agencies  of 
the  Church,  is  slight,  indeed.  We  must  add  one  more 
inadequacy  to  the  already  long  list.  The  religious  educa- 
tional agencies  of  the  Church  receive  inadequate  support 
and  inadequate  cooperation  from  the  homes  of  the  children 
enrolled. 

It  will  be  agreed,  that  the  goal  of  the  Protestant  churches 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES        6.5 

should  be  the  gathering  into  their  religious  educational 
organizations  of  all  the  children  and  youth  that  Protestant- 
ism can  rightfully  claim;  and  the  bringing  of  all  these 
young  people  into  church  membership  through  the  inspira- 
tion and  nurture  of  the  Church.  If  the  Protestant  churches 
were  attaining  this  goal,  they  could  rightfully  consider 
their  religious  educational  agencies  as  one  hundred  per 
cent  efficient.  How  near  are  we  to  attaining  it?  Of  the 
forty  per  cent  of  children  and  youth  reached  by  the  educa- 
tional agencies  of  the  Church  in  the  average  community, 
what  portion  is  ultimately  won  for  the  Church?  The  best 
information  available  seems  to  show  that  only  about  forty 
per  cent  of  these  young  people  become  members  of  the 
Church.  This  means  that  only  about  sixteen  per  cent  of 
the  developing  life  in  the  average  American  community  is 
reached  by  the  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  and  so 
held  and  influenced  as  to  make  a  definite  decision  for  the 
Christian  life.  Our  educational  agencies  are  only  about 
sixteen  per  cent  efficient.  There  are  many  American  com- 
munities where  the  fruits  of  this  comparative  failure  are 
plainly  seen,  many  in  which  you  will  find  five  adult  people 
outside  the  Church  for  every  one  you  will  find  inside  of  it. 
What  is  necessary  for  the  putting  of  the  religious  educa- 
tional activities  of  Protestantism  on  the  right  basis?  First 
of  all  a  revival  of  religious  education  in  the  home.  "And 
these  words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  upon 
thy  heart;  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy 
children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thy 
house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when 
thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up."  These  verses 
give  us  God's  commandment  for  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  religious  education  in  the  home.  The 
religion  to  be  taught  must,  first  of  all,  be  upon  the  hearts 
of  parents,  at  the  very  center  of  life  and  of  all  its  phases 
of  conduct.  They  cannot  teach  religion  unless  they  have 


64  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

it,  themselves.  But  even  a  godly  piety,  important  and 
fundamental  as  it  is,  does  not  fully  suffice;  there  must  be 
ordered  and  purposeful  instruction.  "Thou  shalt  teach 
them  diligently  unto  thy  children."  Religious  matters 
must  not  be  "taboo"  in  the  conversations  of  the  house- 
hold, but  must  be  their  central  theme.  Thou  "shalt  talk 
of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thy  house,  and  when  thou 
walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when 
thou  risest  up."  Religion  the  last  thing  at  night,  the  first 
thing  in  the  morning,  by  the  fireside  in  the  hour  of  relax- 
ation, out  on  the  busy  thoroughfares  of  daily  toil,  this  is 
the  ideal  which  God  held  up  before  his  chosen  people. 

When  the  angel  announced  to  Zacharias  the  coming  of 
the  great  forerunner  of  the  world's  Saviour,  he  did  not 
say  that  the  preparation  of  the  world  for  the  coming  One 
should  be  through  some  great  economic  revolution,  nor 
through  some  political  upheaval  which  should  set  the 
Jewish  people  free  from  Roman  bondage,  nor  through  some 
reform  in  the  Jewish  Church  which  should  free  it  from 
Sadducean  control;  he  spoke  of  a  reform  in  an  institution 
far  more  fundamental  than  Church  or  State,  of  a  religious 
revival  in  the  home.  And  he  shall  "turn  the  hearts  of 
the  fathers  to  the  children."  That  the  father  should  be 
the  prophet  and  priest  of  the  household  is  God's  plan;  and 
matters  can  never  be  right  in  the  home,  in  the  Church, 
in  the  nation,  until  the  father  fulfills  his  God-given  office. 

In  the  second  place,  the  educational  agencies  of  the 
Church  must  be  brought  to  -a  state  of  adequateness  and 
efficiency  by  the  better  development  of  the  agencies  already 
in  existence  and  the  organization  of  new  ones,  as  needed. 
We  must  keep  right  on  with  our  plans  for  teacher  training, 
organized  classes,  departmental  organization,  graded  les- 
sons, and  other  Sunday-school  improvements.  At  the  same 
time,  we  must  not  be  deceived  into  thinking  that  these 
improvements  of  existing  educational  agencies  will  suffice . 


INADEQUACY  OF  THE  CUSTOMARY  AGENCIES        C,5 

We  must  look  forward  to  the  organization  of  supplemen- 
tary religious  education  on  a  large  scale.  We  shall  need 
Vacation  Bible  Schools,  Community  Training  Schools,  and 
Week-Day  Church  Schools. 

In  the  third  place  the  community  life  must  be  reorgan- 
ized so  as  to  aid  the  formation  and  conservation  of  religious 
ideals.  Commercialized  amusements  which  neutralize  the 
efforts  of  the  Christian  home  and  the  Christian  Church  to 
ground  the  young  in  morality  and  godliness,  must  give 
place  to  forms  of  amusement  which  are  void  of  offense, 
purposeful,  and  ennobling.  Our  children  and  youth  are 
getting  through  the  commercialized  "movies,"  a  concep- 
tion of  life  which  is  unreal,  low,  and  often  vicious.  How 
can  it  be  otherwise  when  night  after  night  there  is  paraded 
before  them  one  almost  continuous  stream  of  dime  novel 
trash,  but  made  more  potent  than  any  novel  ever  was,  by 
the  power  of  pictured  action.  It  is  time  for  the  American 
people  to  act  vigorously  in  this  matter  and  to  express  in 
laws  that  cannot  be  evaded  their  conviction  that  shooting, 
suicides,  illegitimate  births,  and  maudlin  love  situations, 
are  not  proper  subjects  for  children. 


CHAPTER  III 

Various  Attempts   to   Supplement   the 

Customary  Educational  Agencies 

of  the  Church 


CHAPTER  III 

Various    Attempts    to    Supplement    the    Customary 
Educational  Agencies  of  the  Church 

The  inadequacy  of  the  customary  educational  agencies 
of  the  Protestant  churches  is  quite  generally  recognized. 
There  can  be  no  logical  denial  that  the  results  of  our 
religious  educational  enterprises  are  far  from  satisfactory. 
These  facts  began  to  be  generally  admitted  some  fifty 
years  ago.  For  more  than  forty  years,  earnest  efforts 
were  made  to  correct  matters  by  the  improvement  of 
educational  agencies  already  existing  within  the  Church. 
These  efforts  are  still  being  made,  but,  during  the  past 
ten  years,  there  has  grown  up  a  widespread  movement 
looking  to  the  improvement  of  our  educational  activities 
through  the  organization  of  agencies  supplemental  to  those 
already  in  existence.  This  new  movement  has  grown  out 
of  the  conviction  that  the  existing  agencies  for  religious 
education,  however  much  they  may  be  improved,  can 
never  be  made  efficient  and  adequate  instruments  for  the 
whole  educational  task  of  the  Church.  Some  of  these 
supplementary  organizations  had  their  origin  consider- 
ably more  than  ten  years  ago,  but  their  development  has 
been  very  largely  within  that  period. 

It  is  the  object  of  this  chapter  to  examine  briefly  some 
of  the  more  important  of  these  supplementary  religious 
educational  agencies  and  to  attempt  an  evaluation  of  them 
with  a  view  to  determining  their  fitness  to  become  perma- 
nent parts  of  the  unified  program  of  Protestant  religious 
education,  which  it  is  hoped  may  soon  be  set  up  by  the 
cooperation  of  Protestant  denominations.  Some  of  the 
educational  movements  named  in  the  following  list  are 

(>9 


70  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

fairly  well  organized  either  denominationally,  or  interde- 
nominationally,  or  both;  others  have  scarcely  any  organiza- 
tion, at  all,  but  exist  as  somewhat  widely  varying  and 
independent  activities,  in  churches  widely  separated. 
Agencies  for  Supplementary  Religious  Education. 

1.  Daily  Vacation  Bible  Schools. 

2.  Summer  Schools  of  Religion. 

3.  Community  Training  Schools. 

4.  Occasional  Classes. 

5.  Parochial  Schools. 

6.  Pastor's  Communicant  Classes. 

7.  Pre-School  Chapel  Services. 

8.  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Classes. 

9.  Public-School  Credits  for  Outside  Bible  Study. 
10.  Week-Day  Church  Schools. 

Nine  of  the  items  in  this  list  will  be  considered  here, 
the  tenth  is  reserved  for  fuller  treatment  in  the  chapters 
which  follow. 

1.  Daily  Vacation  Bible  Schools.  The  Daily  Vaca- 
tion Bible  School  movement  began  in  New  York  City  a 
little  more  than  ten  years  ago.  Its  growth  has  been  steady 
and  comparatively  rapid.  The  number  of  pupils  enrolled 
in  Presyterian  Vacation  Bible  Schools,  during  the  summer 
of  1920,  was  over  fifty  thousand.  They  were  enrolled  in 
some  four  hundred  schools.  The  International  Daily  Vaca- 
tion Bible  School  Association  reports  over  fifteen  hundred 
schools  in  the  country  which  reported  during  1920  to  their 
organization.  There  are  a  good  many  schools  which  do 
not  send  in  reports  to  any  denominational  or  interdenomi- 
national organization;  so  it  seems  certain  that  the  number 
of  children  who  received  religious  instruction  through  this 
educational  agency,  during  the  summer  of  1920,  was  well 
over  two  hundred  thousand.  Thirteen  years  ago  there 
were  only  nineteen  schools  in  the  country  with  a  little 


VARIOUS  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPLEMENT  AGENCIES      71 

over  five  thousand  pupils  instructed  by  seventy  teachers 
in  four  different  cities. 

The  Vacation  Bible  School  program  consists  of  Bible 
instruction,  the  learning  of  hymns,  lessons  in  patriotism, 
health  instruction,  handwork  of  various  kinds,  and  different 
forms  of  recreational  activities.  The  schools  usually  run 
for  five  weeks,  five  hours  a  day,  from  about  9.00  a.  m. 
to  11.40  a.m.  though  the  time  arrangement  varies  consider- 
ably. This  form  of  religious  instruction  has  certain  very 
distinct  advantages.  It  comes  at  a  time  of  the  year  when 
the  children  are  free  from  public-school  duties,  when 
church  buildings  are  used  less  than  at  any  other  time  of 
the  year,  and  when  many  college  students  and  public- 
school  teachers  are  available  for  this  type  of  work.  Vaca- 
tion Bible  Schools  have  been  most  numerous  and  most 
largely  attended  in  the  more  densely  peopled  foreign- 
speaking  communities  of  our  larger  cities.  They  are  just 
as  capable  of  rendering  valuable  service  in  our  American 
communities,  in  our  smaller  cities,  and  even  in  country 
districts;  but  their  value  is  just  beginning  to  be  appreciated 
in  the  last  named  places. 

A  Vacation  Bible  School,  of  standard  length,  is  equal 
in  instruction  time  to  a  full  year  and  a  half  of  Sunday- 
school  attendance  and  its  pedagogical  value  is  of  even 
greatercomparative  value  than  the  greater  time  for  instruc- 
tion would  indicate.  The  continuous  and  closely  correlated 
instruction  of  the  Vacation  Bible  School  gives  it,  hour  for 
hour,  greater  pedagogical  value  than  that  possessed  by 
Sunday-school  instruction.  Nearly  all  Protestant  denomi- 
nations now  recognize  the  Vacation  Bible  School  as  an 
integral  part  of  their  educational  system,  and  make  pro- 
vision for  it  accordingly.  Courses  of  study  are  prepared, 
handbooks  of  information  published,  and  much  other 
informational  literature  issued. 

It  seems  certain  that  the  Vacation  Bible  School  has  not 


72  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

only  come  to  stay,  but  that  it  is  destined  to  fill  a  far 
greater  place  in  the  educational  program  of  the  Church 
than  it  has  yet  attained.  It  is  a  distinct  help  toward  the 
solution  of  the  religious  educational  problems  of  Protes- 
tantism. And  yet  it  is  not,  in  itself,  a  solution  of  these 
problems.  The  existing  educational  agencies  of  the 
Church,  with  the  Vacation  Bible  School  added,  will  not 
make  an  adequate  equipment  for  religious  education.  The 
Vacation  Bible  School  has  certain  definite  limits  beyond 
which  it  cannot  go.  Five  weeks  is  near  the  maximum 
amount  of  vacation  time  children  can  be  expected  to  give 
to  these  schools.  The  idea  of  the  Vacation  Bible  School 
is  capable  of  being  carried  into  other  types  of  religious 
instruction.  Several  Vacation  Bible  Schools  have  resulted 
in  continuation  schools  which  carry  the  Vacation  Bible 
School  instruction  on  throughout  the  year.  Such  a  school, 
however,  ceases  to  be  a  vacation  school.  Such  continua- 
tion schools  have  resulted  in  Baltimore,  Maryland;  Grand 
Rapids,  Michigan;  and  elsewhere.  In  Baltimore  seven  of 
such  schools  have  been  running  for  five  years,  with  over 
five  hundred  pupils  enrolled.  In  cases  like  this,  the  Vaca- 
tion Bible  Schools  have  evolved  into  schools  of  week-day 
religious  instruction,  and  should  be  so  classified. 

2.  Summer  schools  of  religion.  These  schools  are 
somewhat  similar  to  the  Vacation  Bible  Schools  but  are 
entirely  distinct  as  to  origin,  and  differ  in  important 
respects  as  to  curriculum  and  aims.  They  seem  to  have 
sprung  up  independently  and  approximately  simultan- 
eously at  widely  separated  places  in  our  country.  The 
oldest  and  best  known  of  these  schools  grew  out  of  a  sum- 
mer Bible  school  at  Elk  Mound,  Wisconsin.  A  children's 
department  was  organized  in  this  Bible  school  at  Elk 
Mound,  primarily  as  a  practice  class  for  those  adult  mem- 
bers of  the  school  who  were  preparing  for  Sunday-school 
teaching.     In  time  this  training  department  became  so 


VARIOUS  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPLEMENT  AGENCIES      73 

important,  for  its  own  sake,  that  it  evolved  into  a  religious 
day  school  for  children.  The  idea  spread  rapidly  and 
became  known  as  the  "Wisconsin  Plan." 

At  about  the  time  that  the  Wisconsin  schools  were 
petting  well  under  way  a  similar  system  of  Summer 
Schools  of  Religion  was  growing  up  around  the  head  of 
Delaware  Bay.  Rev.  Abraham  L.  Latham  wras  the  leader 
of  this  movement  as  Rev.  H.  R.  Vaughn  had  been  the 
leader  of  the  experiments  at  Elk  Mound.  During  the 
summer  of  1920,  the  following  churches,  in  this  eastern 
group,  had  Summer  Schools  of  Religion  with  pupils  en- 
rolled as  indicated: 

Name  of  Church  Pupils  Enrolled 

1.  Third  Presbyterian,  Chester,  Pa 419 

2.  Trinity  Lutheran,  Chester,  Pa 70 

3.  Italian  Presbyterian,  Chester,  Pa 75 

4.  Olivet,  Moore,  Pa 27 

5.  Darby  Presbyterian,  Darby,  Pa 102 

6.  Orphanage,  Wallingford,  Pa 48 

7.  First  Presbyterian,  Johnstown,  Pa 146 

8.  First  Presbyterian,  New  Kensington,  Pa 58 

9.  Presbyterian,  Benton,  Pa 40 

10.  West  Presbyterian,  Wilmington,  Delaware 158 

11.  Woodland  Ave.  Presbyterian,  Camden,  N.  J 64 

12.  Warren  Ave.  Presbyterian,  Saginaw,  Mich 58 

13.  First  Presbyterian,  Midland,  Mich 104 

Total 1369 

It  will  be  noted,  from  the  above  table,  that  this  type  of 
school  is  being  adopted  by  churches  at  some  distance  from 
the  place  where  it  originated.  In  these  schools,  handwork 
is  confined  to  such  activities  as  serve  to  illustrate  the 
Scripture  lessons,  and  there  is  very  little  of  any  kind.  The 
emphasis  is  on  Bible  study,  with  a  good  deal  of  memorizing. 
The  schools  are  graded  after  the  public-school  model; 
many  of  them  have  high-school  classes  and  some  a  kinder- 
garten grade.  The  length  of  term  and  hours  is  practically 
the  same  as  in  the  Vacation  Bible  Schools.    The  pastors 


74  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

who  have  tried  these  schools  seeni  unanimous  in  their 
opinion  that  they  are  a  great  help  to  the  church.  They 
usually  say  that  a  much  higher  type  of  work  is  obtained 
in  these  schools  than  seems  to  be  possible  in  the  Sunday 
schools.  The  Church  first  named  in  the  above  list  received 
one  hundred  and  twelve  members  at  a  recent  communion 
service;  a  good  evidence  of  the  efficiency  of  this  type  of 
religious  education. 

This  type  of  school  has  the  same  advantages  and  limita- 
tions as  the  Vacation  Bible  Schools.  They  are  practically 
Vacation  Bible  Schools  with  a  somewhat  greater  emphasis 
on  Bible  study  than  the  typical  Vacation  Bible  School  and 
a  practical  elimination  of  all  activities  which  do  not  have 
direct  bearing  on  Bible  instruction. 

3.  Community  training  schools.  These  schools  are 
organized  interdenominational  attempts  to  secure  better 
trained  teachers  for  the  Sunday  schools  and  other  educa- 
tional agencies  of  the  Church.  They  usually  reach,  how- 
ever, some  who  are  not  preparing  for  the  teaching  of 
religion,  especially  in  their  classes  for  general  Bible  study. 
The  sessions  are  usually  held  one  night  in  the  week  for  a 
term  of  twenty-five  weeks.  This  evening  session  is  divided 
into  two  recitation  periods  with  an  assembly  period 
between.  The  subjects  taught  include,  in  most  schools, 
such  matters  as  Psychology  of  Childhood  and  Adolescence, 
Religious  Pedagogy,  Bible,  Sunday-School  Organization 
and  Administration,  Religious  Education  in  the  Home, 
and  Church  History. 

Community  training  schools  have  been  organized  in 
Maiden,  Massachusetts;  Braintree,  Massachusetts ;  Hyde 
Park,  Massachusetts;  Lowell,  Massachusetts;  South 
Boston,  Massachusetts;  Evanston,  Illinois;  East  Chicago, 
Indiana;  East  Orange,  New  Jersey^  Somerville,  New 
Jersey;  Evansville,  Indiana;  and  many  other  places. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  they  have  deen  distinctly  helpful 


VARIOUS  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPLEMENT  AGENCIES      7.3 

wherever  given  a  fair  trial.  Some  of  the  leading  religious 
educators  of  the  country  have  taught  in  them,  and  com- 
munities where  they  have  been  organized  have  witnessed  a 
marked  improvement  in  the  Sunday-school  instruction. 
In  some  instances  these  training  schools  have  widened  the 
scope  of  their  efforts  so  as  to  include  the  preparation  of 
teachers  for  week-day  church  schools.  These  training 
schools  meet  the  needs  of  one  particular  phase  of  the 
religious  educational  problem.  They  help  to  recruit  the 
teaching  force  and  to  fit  it  for  more  efficient  service.  They 
are  not  a  direct  attempt  to  reach  the  multitudes  of  children 
and  youth  spiritually  untaught,  but  do  make  that  problem 
more  hopeful  of  solution  by  promising  a  way  by  which  the 
teaching  force  for  this  larger  undertaking  may  be  secured. 
They  ought  to  be  organized  everywhere  as  rapidly  as  com- 
petent instructors  for  them  can  be  secured.  Fuller  descrip- 
tions of  these  schools  than  is  possible  here  can  be  secured 
from  any  of  the  schools  named. 

4.  Occasional  classes.  In  a  number  of  communities, 
of  some  of  our  Eastern  states,  the  custom  has  prevailed  of 
gathering  all  the  children  of  the  community,  w-ho  could  be 
induced  to  come,  into  an  instruction  class  for  a  period 
varying  from  one  wreek  to  four  or  five  weeks,  usually  just 
before  Easter.  Several  denominations  have  united  in  the 
movement,  in  most  cases.  The  pastors  have  taken  turns 
in  addressing  the  children.  Such  a  form  of  religious  in- 
struction doubtless  does  some  good,  but  its  general  result 
is  apt  to  be  small.  It  isn't  a  real  school.  The  pupils  haven't 
enough  to  do.  The  succession  of  one  pastor  after  another, 
as  teachers  of  the  class,  is  an  unpedagogical  arrangement . 
The  time  during  which  the  class  is  kept  up  is  not  long 
enough  to  allowT  of  any  real  educationally  constructive 
work.  Communities  ought  not  to  be  content  with  this 
form  of  supplemental  education  unless  they  cannot  possi- 
bly secure  a  better  one. 


76  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

5.  Parochial  schools.  Practically  the  only  Protestant 
denomination  that  depends  on  the  parochial  school  for  the 
religious  instruction  of  its  children  is  the  Luthern  denomi- 
nation. Among  Lutheran  people  these  schools  are  not 
uncommon.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  parochial 
school  can  be  made  to  supplement  successfully  the  Sunday 
instruction.  There  is  abundant  time  for  such  a  purpose, 
and  the  teachers  are  usually  trained  instructors.  The 
possibility  of  the  Protestant  denominations,  as  a  whole, 
turning  to  the  organization  of  parochial  schools  as  a  solu- 
tion of  their  religious  educational  difficulties  is  so  remote 
that  it  is  hardly  worth  mentioning.  The  enrollment  of  a 
child  in  a  parochial  school  means  his  elimination  from  the 
public  school.  Americans  are  well  agreed  that  the  public- 
school  is  the  bulwark  of  x\merican  democracy.  The  gather- 
ing of  the  children  of  the  various  denominations  into 
parochial  schools  would  mean  that  the  churches  would 
have  to  assume  the  burden  of  instructing  them  in  secular 
studies  as  well  as  in  religious  subjects.  The  parochial 
school,  for  the  reasons  given,  may  as  well  be  ruled  out  as 
a  possible  agency  for  the  solution  of  Protestant  educational 
problems. 

6.  Pastor's  communicant  classes.  Many  pastors 
gather  prospective  Church  members,  especially  those  of 
younger  age,  into  instruction  classes,  just  previous  to  their 
admission  into  the  Church.  These  classes  vary  in  length 
from  a  few  weeks  to  several  months.  There  is  no  question 
concerning  the  great  benefits  derived  from  such  instruction. 
The  only  strange  thing  about  these  communicant  classes  is 
the  fact  that  a  good  many  pastors  fail  to  have  them  at  all. 
They  undoubtedly  ought  to  be  an  annual  feature  of  the 
Church  program,  and  ought  to  be  considered  as  an  integral 
part  of  the  educational  system  of  every  church.  No 
pastor  can  afford  to  be  without  them. 

And  yet  the  pastor's  communicant  class,  important  as  it 


VARIOUS  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPLEMENT  AGENCIES      77 

is  in  its  own  sphere,  ought  not  to  be  considered  as  making 
the  educational  system  of  the  Church  complete.  The 
addition  of  a  pastor's  communicant  class  to  the  educational 
agencies,  already  existing  in  the  various  churches,  will  not 
solve  the  religious  education  problem.  The  educational 
task,  of  even  a  small  church,  is  too  large  to  be  put  on  an 
efficient  working  basis  by  the  small  amount  of  time  the 
average  pastor  can  give  to  it.  The  unique  opportunity 
of  the  pastor  is,  as  has  been  suggested,  in  the  preparation 
of  prospective  Church  members  for  entrance  into  the 
Church.  But  there  must  be  years  of  efficient  teaching 
among  the  younger  children,  if  the  pastor  is  to  have  full 
communicant  classes. 

Moreover,  many  pastors  are  quite  unprepared  for  any 
large  educational  undertaking.  Most  of  them  love  children, 
because  of  native  tendencies  in  that  direction  and  because 
of  fellowship  with  the  Master  who  loved  them;  but  com- 
paratively few  are  competent  to  assume  full  and  efficient 
leadership  and  supervision  of  the  educational  activities  of 
the  churches  over  which  they  are  pastors.  The  typical 
theological  training  of  the  day  is  away  from  the  child  mind 
rather  than  towrard  it.  Seminary  education  of  the  usual 
kind  unfits  young  men  for  the  teaching  of  children,  rather 
than  otherwise.  Seminary  professors  are  specialists  in 
their  chosen  subjects;  but  the  child  psychologist  is  con- 
spicuous by  his  absence  from  the  seminary  faculty.  Most 
pastors  get  along  fairly  well  in  their  efforts  to  feed  the 
sheep;  but  in  their  efforts  to  feed  the  lambs  they  get  along 
rather  poorly.  It  is  not  their  fault.  In  order  to  be  an 
efficient  pastor  of  children,  a  man  must  know  the  child 
and  how  to  speak  a  language  the  child  can  understand. 
For  a  pastor  really  able  to  instruct  children  or  supervise 
their  instruction  a  knowledge  of  child  nature  is  essential; 
a  knowledge  of  Hebrewr,  Aramaic,  and  the  documentary 
theory  of  the  Pentateuch  is  incidental. 


78  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

7.  Pre-school  chapel  services.  In  a  number  of 
communities,  pastors  have  organized  chapel  services,  of  a 
half  hour  or  so,  for  school  children  before  the  opening  of 
public  school  on  some  week  day.  The  service  is  one  of 
song,  prayer,  Bible  stories,  and  drill  on  the  catechism. 
Such  chapel  services  for  public-school  children  have  been 
conducted  in  Ravenswood  Presbyterian  Church,  Chicago, 
Illinois,  for  over  eight  years  and  have  demonstrated  their 
value.  An  efficient  leader  in  such  a  service  can  do  much  to 
train  his  audience  in  worship  and  praise.  A  good  service 
of  this  kind  is  not  without  educational  value;  but  the 
amount  of  instruction  which  can  be  so  imparted  is  quite 
limited.  To  depend  upon  a  chapel  service  of  the  kind 
described  for  a  full  supplementing  of  the  Sunday-school 
instruction  would  be  like  depending  upon  the  opening 
service  of  a  church  school  for  instruction,  and  discarding 
all  classroom  work.  Efficient  and  sufficient  religious 
instruction  cannot  be  given  without  grading,  definite 
assignments  of  lessons,  tasks  to  be  done  by  pupils,  and 
personal  contracts  between  teacher  and  pupils  in  moderate 
sized  classes.  You  can  educate  children  somewhat,  but 
not  fully,   en  masse. 

The  place  for  a  chapel  service,  of  the  kind  under  con- 
sideration, is  at  the  opening  of  a  church  school,  where  after 
the  period  of  worship,  praise,  and  mass  instruction,  the 
youthful  congregation  breaks  up  into  classes  for  more 
intensive  teaching  specially  fitted  to  the  understanding 
and  needs  of  the  particular  groups.  We  can  get  along  with 
pulpit  and  platform  instruction  for  adults ;  but  in  the  case 
of  children,  we  must  have  something  besides  if  we  are  to 
do  our  educational  tasks  as  they  should  be  done. 

8.  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  classes.  Both  of 
these  organizations  have,  of  late  years,  inaugurated  rather 
extensive  plans  for  religious  instruction,  especially  for 
young  people  of  the  'teen  ages.     In  1918,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 


VARIOUS  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPLEMENT  AGENCIES      70 

organized  3380  classes  for  boys,  and  there  was  in  these 
classes  an  enrolled  membership  of  58,762.  These  figures 
do  not  include  Y.  M.  C.  A.  classes  for  high-school  boys  and 
employed  boys.  These  figures  indicate  that  these  organiza- 
tions are  making  contributions  to  the  educational  task  of 
no  mean  proportions.  Certain  grave  considerations,  how- 
ever, make  doubtful  the  expediency  of  giving  over  a  large 
part  of  the  religious  educational  task  to  these  organiza- 
tions. Very  few  of  the  leaders  of  the  organizations  named 
have  done  any  of  the  actual  teaching.  Their  secretaries 
and  assistant  secretaries  are  not  infrequently  well  trained; 
but  in  nearly  all  cases  the  multitudinous  tasks  of  these 
officials  have  rendered  it  impossible  for  them  to  do  class- 
room work.  The  teaching  has  been  delegated,  therefore, 
to  volunteer  teachers,  some  of  whom  were  capable,  some 
of  whom  were  scarcely  so.  Instruction  under  the  care  of 
these  two  organizations  has  been  of  about  the  usual 
Sunday-school  quality.  There  is  a  growing  feeling  that  it 
would  be  unwise  for  the  Church  to  hand  over  any  con- 
siderable part  of  her  educational  task  to  any  independent, 
or  semi-independent  organization.  Instruction  of  the  type 
under  consideration  has  been  wholly  uncoordinated  with 
the  instruction  given  by  the  churches.  If  the  Church  must 
delegate  a  part  of  the  educational  task  to  outside  organiza- 
tions, there  ought  to  be,  at  least,  some  understanding  so 
that  the  different  courses  of  study  will  not  be  repetitious, 
out  of  chronological  sequence,  and  contradictory  as  to  the 
conclusions  reached.  Without  any  unity  of  plan,  and 
carried  on  by  noncooperating  agencies,  religious  education 
will  inevitably  be  chaotic,  fragmentary,  and  inefficient. 
If  the  Church  wishes  to  avail  herself  of  the  aid  of  the 
organizations  named,  there  is  a  logical  way  to  do  it; 
namely,  by  assigning  certain  definite  phases  of  the  religious 
educational  task  to  them,  and  holding  them  responsible 
for  the  doing  of  the  task  in  a  satisfactory  manner.    Under 


SO  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

the  loose  arrangement  which  has  prevailed  up  to  the 
present,  teachers  of  peculiar  views  have  not  infrequently 
gotten  in.  Sometimes  the  instruction  of  these  teachers  is 
directly  opposite  to  what  practically  all  the  churches  teach, 
but  there  was  no  way  of  checking  them  up  and  the  mis- 
chief went  on  until  the  term  ended  or  all  the  pupils  stopped 
coining.  The  religious  education  of  children  and  young 
people  is  too  important  for  us  to  allow  it  to  be  done  in  any 
such  slipshod  fashion. 

9.  Public-school  credits  for  outside  Bible  study. 
This  important  religious  educational  movement  is  asso- 
ciated with  the  name  of  Dr.  Vernon  P.  Squires,  Dean  of 
the  University  of  North  Dakota.  In  the  fall  of  1911,  Dr. 
Squires  suggested  that  the  State  Board  of  Education 
should  provide  a  syllabus  for  Bible  study  in  the  high- 
school  grades.  This  was  done,  and  the  teaching  of  the 
course  of  study  as  outlined  was  taken  up  by  Sunday 
schools,  Y.  M.  C.  A.  classes,  and  other  organizations. 
Satisfactory  work  on  the  course  was  rewarded  by  high- 
school  credits  for  the  work  accomplished.  The  idea 
quickly  spread  to  many  other  states  and  assumed  forms 
more  or  less  modified.  In  some  states  the  plan  has  been 
extended  upward  to  the  college  and  downward  into  the 
elementary  grades. 

There  are  many  reasons  for  believing  that  the  plan 
ought  to  be  inaugurated  in  every  state  of  the  Union,  and 
ought  to  be  so  extended  as  to  cover  the  whole  field  of 
religious  education  from  the  first  grade  up  to,  and  through, 
the  uni versify. 

It  is  well  to  note  that  this  movement  is  not  one  looking 
toward  the  creation  of  any  new  religious  educational 
agencies.  It  aims  to  assist  and  inspire  those  already  in 
existence  by  putting  religious  instruction  on  a  basis  where 
it  is  honored  equally  with  other  matters  of  study.  It  has 
proved  a  valuable  aid  to  all  of  the  educational  agencies  of 


VARIOUS  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPLEMENT  AGENCIES      81 

the  Church  now  in  existence,  and  would  doubtless  prove 
equally  helpful  to  any  new  agencies  that  might  be  formed. 

Most  of  the  nine  different  types  of  supplementary 
educational  agencies  already  discussed  have  been  found  to 
be  of  value.  Some  have  been  found  to  be  decidedly  so. 
But  none  has  seemed  large  enough  and  suggestive  enough 
to  be  made  the  primary  agency  for  the  task.  There  is  none 
that  even  gives  promise  of  a  possible  development  which 
would  fit  it  to  become  the  central  and  unifying  plan  for  our 
whole  religious  educational  system,  though  most  of  them 
could  evidently  be  given  places  of  considerable  importance 
in  such  a  system.  The  supplemental  religious  educational 
agency  which  gives  largest  promise  of  becoming  such  a 
central  and  unifying  plan  for  an  American  system  of 
religious  education  has  been  reserved  for  final  mention  in 
this  chapter  and  for  fuller  treatment  in  the  chapters  that 
follow. 

10.  The  week-day  church  school.  A  week-day 
church  school  is  one  in  which  religious  instruction  is  given 
on  week  days  and  for  a  term  approximately  parallelling 
the  public-school  year.  The  discussion  of  the  different 
types  of  week-day  church  schools  and  the  various  problems 
connected  with  the  organizing  and  conducting  of  them  will 
be  taken  up  in  following  chapters ;  here  the  author  wishes 
to  consider  the  relation  of  the  week-day  church  school 
to  the  other  supplementary  religious  educational  agencies 
previously  mentioned  in  the  present  chapter.  The  week- 
day church  school  possesses  distinct  advantages  which 
make  it  well  worthy  of  consideration  as  the  central  and 
unifying  plan  for  an  American  system  of  religious  educa- 
tion. In  such  a  plan,  the  Vacation  Bible  Schools  and 
summer  schools  of  religion  would  logically  become  the 
summer  sessions  of  the  week-day  church  schools,  with  a 
course  of  study  and  expressional  activities  which  are 
closely  correlated   with   the   whole   religious  educational 


82  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

system.  The  community  training  school  would  be  the 
teacher-training  agency  for  the  whole  educational  system 
of  the  Protestant  Church.  Occasional  classes,  and  classes 
conducted  by  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  organizations 
would  be  assigned  some  definite  part  of  the  educational 
task  of  the  Church  and  held  responsible  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  it  in  a  satisfactory  way,  if  it  were  felt  to  be 
desirable  that  the  work  be  so  assigned.  Parochial  schools 
as  agencies  of  Protestant  religious  education  would  be 
eliminated.  The  pastor's  communicant  class  would  be- 
come a  special  and  integral  part  of  the  educational  program 
of  the  Church.  The  pre-school  chapel  service  would 
become  the  opening  service  for  the  week-day  church 
school  and  would  furnish  training  in  worship,  praise,  and 
Christian  fellowship  for  all  the  pupils  under  the  educational 
care  of  the  Church.  Public-school  credits  for  outside 
Bible  study  is  already  an  established  practice  in  commun- 
ities where  week-day  church  schools  are  now  in  operation. 
In  Gary,  one  thirty  second  of  the  high-school  course  may 
be  taken  in  the  church  schools.  In  Toledo,  one  sixteenth 
of  the  course  may  be  in  religious  instruction. 

Incidentally,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  organiza- 
tion of  week-day  church  schools,  in  cooperation  with  the 
public  schools,  gives  Lutherans  and  Roman  Catholics  an 
opportunity  to  escape  the  "double  taxation"  so  distasteful 
to  them.  Under  the  new  system,  their  parochial  schools 
could  give  over  the  teaching  of  secular  studies  to  the  public 
schools,  and  give  their  attention  wholly  to  the  teaching 
of  religious  matters,  thus  becoming  week-day  church 
schools  which  cooperate  with  the  public  schools  and  cease 
to  be  competitors  with  them.  In  a  number  of  communities 
this  arrangement  is  already  made  and  working  satisfac- 
torily. In  one  of  these  communities  fifty  thousand  dollars 
had  been  appropriated  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  for 
t  he  erection  of  a  parochial-school  building,  but  the  plan  for 


VARIOUS  ATTEMPTS  TO  SUPPLEMENT  AGENCIES      83 

the  erection  of  it  was  abandoned  because  the  authorities  of 
the  Catholic  Church  came  to  believe  that  the  week-day 
school  plan  was  preferable  to  the  parochial-school  plan. 
The  week-day  school  movement  is  much  further  advanced 
among  Jews  than  it  is  among  either  Protestants  or  Cath- 
olics. They  have  practically  adopted  it  as  the  solution  of 
their  educational  problems,  and  the  parochial  schools 
among  them  are  dwindling  in  number  and  in  attendance. 
It  is  evident  that  the  week-day  church-school  idea  gives 
promise  of  fitness  to  become  an  ail-American  system  of 
religious  education.  With  its  full  development,  we  should 
have  the  public  schools  ministering  to  all  the  children  of 
America  and  fitting  them  for  citizenship  in  our  great 
democracy;  we  should  also  have  a  closely  correlated  sys- 
tem of  religious  schools  giving  religious  instruction  to  all 
the  children  of  America  in  the  fundamental  truths  and 
forms  of  worship  of  the  particular  faith  to  which  they 
belong. 


CHAPTER  IV 


Three  Types  of  Week  Day  Church 
Schools 


CHAPTER  IV 

Three  Types  of  Week  Day  Church  Schools 

Out  of  the  experiments  in  week-day  religious  instruction, 
carried  on  in  various  parts  of  our  country,  three  quite 
distinct  types  of  week-day  church  schools  have  arisen. 
These  types  may  be  named  as  follows: 

1.  The  Denominational  or  Individual  Church  Type  of 
Week-Day  Church  Schools. 

2.  The  Denominational  Community  Type  of  Week-Day 
Church  Schools. 

8.  The  Interdenominational  Community  Type  of  Week- 
Day  Church  Schools. 

There  is  considerable  variation  among  the  various  church 
schools,  and  the  schools  of  no  given  community  are  exactly 
like  those  in  any  other  community.  Certain  similarities, 
however,  are  usually  manifest  which  make  the  grouping 
of  the  schools  into  the  above  types  a  simple  matter.  The 
different  types  will  be  considered  in  order  and  certain 
outstanding  examples  of  each  type  considered  somewhat 
in  detail. 

1.  The  denominational  or  individual  church 
type  of  week-day  church  schools.  (Chart  No.  8  is 
a  graphic  representation  of  organization  for  this  type  of 
schools.) 

This  type  of  week-day  church  school  is  that  in  which 
the  week-day  religious  instruction  is  a  part  of  the  educa- 
tional program  of  an  individual  church.  The  Church 
usually  cooperates  with  its  own  denomination  in  the  con- 
duct of  the  school  and  in  some  cases  receives  aid  from 
denominational  Boards.  Schools  of  this  type  are  under  the 
control  of  the  individual  church  where  they  are  conducted. 

87 


S8 


THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 


The  course  of  study  is  usually  denominational  and  often 
an  adaptation  and  extension  of  the  Sunday-school  les-. 
sons.  These  schools  are  not  denominational  in  the  sense  of 
excluding  children  of  other  communions  from  their  privi- 
leges ;  but  in  the  sense  of  their  organization,  course  of  study, 
and  supervision,  being  in  the  hands  of  a  church  belong- 
ing to  a  particular  denomination.  Sometimes  two  churches 
of  the  same  denomination  unite  in  conducting  a  week-day 
church  school.  In  such  a  case,  the  school  would  still 
belong  to  this  type.  The  table  on  this  page  gives  a  list 
of  some  of  the  churches  which  were  conducting  week-day 
church  schools  of  this  type  during  the  school  year  of 
1919-1920,  together  with  some  data  concerning  the  same. 


Name  of  church  with  which  the    uP* 
school  is  connected  [  o.-~ 

a  — 


*    s-s 


8W   i-i   2-e  -c 


Grace  Episcopal,  Gary.  Ind.  2  !     1 

Pirst  Baptist,  Gary.  Ind 2  1 

Grace  Episcopal,  Grand  Rapids, 

Mich 1  0 

St.  Mark's  Episcopal  Toledo.  O.  1  1 

Pint  Presbyterian,  Flint,  Mich.  1  0 
North  Presbyterian,  Rochester, 

N.Y 1  0 

Christ  Luth.,  New  York,  N.  Y,  1-3  0 
Church  of  the  Advocate,  Episco- 
pal. N.Y !    i  o 

St.    Michael's,   Episcopal,  New 

York.  N.  Y 1  (I 


0  I  90 

1  400 

15  108 
1  120 
3  j  90 

1  I  30 

3  <  7.-> 


ae 


3  a 


1-1*      3  Ch.  Nur.  $13*2 

1-  8      3  Keyst.    i   1360 

1-12     3  Ch.  Nur.    1750 

1-10*,  3,4  Ch.  Nur.    130-4 

4-12  *,  4  Varied  (Little 

7         3  Gary         350 

1-12  *.4  Yaiied    Little] 


Kg-7 
1-12 


Ch.  Nur.        55 
("h.  Nur.    1800 


Note — The  numbers  in  the  column  headed  "Time  of  Classes"  have  the  following 
significance;   1.  Before  public  school.     2.  After  public  school.     3.  During  public  school. 

•i.   Saturday. 

Of  the  schools  mentioned  in  the  above  list,  the  First 
Baptist  School,  of  Gary,  has  been  merged  with  the  com- 
munity schools  of  that  city.  The  school  at  St.  Michael's 
Episcopal  Church,  New  York  City,  has  been  abandoned 
temporarily.  Week-day  church  schools  of  this  type  are 
coming  into  existence,  at  this  time,  in  many  parts  of  the 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS      89 

country.  Several  more  have  appeared  in  New  York  City 
and  in  Grand  Rapids.  Among  the  new  communities 
reporting  them  are  Wichita,  Kansas;  Topeka,  Kansas; 
Berkeley,  California;  Los  Angeles,  California;  Boston, 
Massachusetts;  Wampum,  Pennsylvania;  East  Orange, 
New  Jersey;  Independence,  Missouri;  Oakland,  California; 
Little  Rock,  Arkansas;  Memphis,  Tennessee;  and  Iron 
River,  Wisconsin. 

Where  a  community  has  only  one  church,  the  organiza- 
tion of  week-day  religious  instruction  naturally  assumes 
the  Individual  Church  Type.  Because  Protestant  denom- 
inations for  many  years  acted  quite  independently  of  one 
another  in  the  matter  of  planting  new  church  enterprises, 
the  places  where  one  church  has  the  community  all  to 
itself  are  not  numerous.  Where  these  conditions  exist,  the 
individual  church  has  a  distinct  responsibility  and  a 
unique  opportunity;  an  opportunity  which  it  can  hardly 
utilize  and  a  responsibility  it  can  hardly  discharge  without 
the  organization  of  week-day  church  schools. 

It  is  to  be  hoped,  however,  that  even  in  communities 
where  one  denomination  occupies  the  field  by  itself,  some 
form  of  cooperation  may  be  established  between  the  week- 
day church  school  it  sets  up  and  the  schools  of  like  character 
in  other  places.  Week-day  church  schools  of  the  individual 
church  type  are  growing  in  favor,  and  we  must  be  on  our 
guard  lest  they  become  new  and  potent  factors  in  a  divided 
and  competing  Protestantism.  Such  a  turn  of  events 
would  go  far  toward  nullifying  the  beneficial  results  we 
are  expecting  from  the  religious  education  revival  which 
is  now  making  itself  felt.  We  must  seek  to  conserve,  it  is 
true,  that  sense  of  responsibility  which  grows  up  around 
an  organization  under  the  individual  church;  and  yet  we 
need  also  that  fellowship  and  enthusiasm  which  arises  from 
a  sense  of  oneness  in  a  widely  spread  and  sublimely 
important  enterprise. 


90  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

The  week-day  church-school  movement  must  not  be 
cut  loose  from  the  churches  and  denominations,  thus 
creating  a  new  parasitic  organization  for  the  community 
to  support.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  not  break  up  into 
multiplied  and  competing  fragments  which  draw  sharp 
lines  of  cleavage  through  the  Protestant  community; 
cleavages  which  have  laid  upon  the  Church  a  heavy  penalty 
of  waste,  inefficiency,  and  failure. 

Full  and  friendly  cooperation  of  Protestant  denomina- 
tions, at  least  of  evangelical  Protestant  denominations,  is 
one  of  the  greatest  needs  of  our  day  for  the  Kingdom 
interest.  It  is  nowhere  needed  more  than  in  this  new  and 
important  enterprise  of  week-day  religious  instruction. 

The  week-day  religious  instruction  carried  on  the  past 
year  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Flint,  Michigan, 
will  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the  Individual  Church  Type 
of  week-day  church  school.  In  the  fall  of  1919,  the  pastor 
and  the  people  of  this  church  worked  out  a  plan  for  sup- 
plementary religious  instruction  which  was  successfully 
carried  on  throughout  the  year.  A  course  of  study  was 
outlined  in  which  instruction  was  to  be  provided  in  (1) 
Old  Testament,  ("2)  New  Testament,  (3)  Church  History, 
(4)  Religion  and  Ethics,  and  (5)  Missions. 

The  pastor,  the  director  of  religious  education,  and  two 
specially  qualified  teachers  from  the  Sunday  school  con- 
stituted the  teaching  force.  The  organization  of  the  school 
followed  departmental  lines,  there  being  a  Junior,  an  Inter- 
mediate, a  Senior,  and  an  Adult  Department. 

Classes  for  young  people  and  adults  met  Wednesday 
at  7.00  and  7.45  p.  m.  Each  class  had  its  own  room,  but 
all  came  together  for  the  closing  services  which  took  the 
place  of  the  midweek  prayer  service.  Classes  for  young 
people  from  the  high  school  met  twice  a  week  at  the  church 
immediately  after  the  close  of  public  school. 

These  high-school  classes  made  especially  good  progress, 


THREE  TYPES  OE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS      01 

and  many  young  people  not  connected  with  the  Presby- 
terian Sunday  school  enrolled  in  them.  High-school  credits 
were  given  by  the  public-school  authorities,  for  work 
completed  in  the  church-school  classes  of  high-school 
grade.  The  subject  for  study  during  the  year  was  the 
history  of  the  Hebrew  people. 

The  Junior  classes  met  at  the  church  Saturday  mornings. 
They  had  lessons  dealing  with  the  heroes  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Some  difficulty  was  found  in  inducing  children  to 
give  up  their  customary  Saturday  activities  in  order  that 
they  might  take  the  church-school  work. 

The  week-day  church  school  which  has  just  been  formed 
by  the  Union  Church  of  Bay  Ridge,  Brooklyn,  New  York, 
is  another  good  illustration  of  this  type.  This  school 
opened  with  the  beginning  of  the  school  year  in  the  fall 
of  1920.  Its  membership  is  at  present  limited  to  120 
pupils.  This  limit  was  reached  within  a  very  few 
weeks  and  there  is  now  a  considerable  waiting  list.  Its 
sessions  are  held  after  the  close  of  the  public  schools  on 
Wednesday.  The  school  begins  at  3.30  p.  m.  and  closes  at 
5.00  p.  m.  This  time  is  divided  into  three  periods.  The 
first  is  the  general  assembly  period,  given  over  to  worship, 
singing,  Bible  stories,  memorizing  of  hymns,  and  like  activ- 
ities. The  pastor  or  the  director  of  religious  education 
usually  takes  charge  of  this  period.  The  second  period  is 
devoted  wholly  to  Bible  study.  The  Gary  leaflets  are  used, 
though  the  amount  of  picture  coloring,  which  is  a  promi- 
nent feature  of  these  lessons  is  reduced  somewhat  and  more 
emphasis  given  to  lesson  discussion.  The  pupils  divide 
into  classes  of  about  twelve  members  each,  and  are  ar- 
ranged according  to  grades.  The  teachers  of  this  period 
are  all  volunteers  from  the  teaching  force  of  the  public 
schools.  Most  of  them  are  members  of  the  Protestant 
Teachers'  Association  and  have  offered  their  services 
through  that  organization.     The  third  period  is  devoted 


92  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

to  various  activities.  Sometimes  it  is  handwork,  some- 
times calisthenic  drill.  Once  in  every  two  weeks  there 
are  moving  pictures.  The  work  of  this  third  period  is 
under  the  charge  of  volunteer  workers  from  the  congre- 
gation. Here  is  a  unique  arrangement  which  seems  to  be 
working  well;  the  devotional  service  under  the  pastor  or 
his  assistant,  the  instructional  period  under  trained  teach- 
ers from  the  public  schools,  the  handwork  under  volunteers 
from  the  congregation  who  have  shown  an  ability  to  in- 
struct in  the  various  activities.  The  division  of  labor 
makes  the  task  of  each  individual  brief,  in  time,  and 
comparatively  easy  as  to  preparation  and  presentation — 
two  ends  very  much  desired  in  the  case  of  volunteer 
workers.  Each  set  of  instructors  is  required  to  be  present 
only  during  the  time  assigned  to  their  particular  work. 

Another  unique  feature  has  appeared  in  this  school. 
Before  a  child  is  enrolled  the  parents  must  sign  a  statement 
that  they  will  cooperate  with  the  church-school  leaders  in 
securing  prompt  and  regular  attendance,  an«l  that  they 
will  assist  their  children  in  the  preparation  of  lessons 
assigned  for  home  work.  Moreover,  they  are  required  to 
make  a  promise  that  they  will  try  to  create  and  maintain 
that  Christian  atmosphere  in  the  home  which  is  so  funda- 
mentally necessary  in  the  spiritual  nurture  of  the  child. 
This  school  is  teaching  the  homes  of  the  community  as 
well  as  the  children  who  come  to  the  school  from  the  homes. 
Children  of  seven  Protestant  denominations,  as  well  as 
some  children  from  Roman  Catholic  homes  have  enrolled 
in  this  school.  Absence  three  times  without  excuse  auto- 
matically drops  the  pupil  from  the  roll.  A  church  visitor 
usually  looks  up  the  child  after  the  second  absence. 

The  pastor  of  this  church,  Rev.  Horace  H.  Leavitt,  says 
that  a  distinctly  higher  type  of  work  is  being  done  in  the 
week-day  church  school  than  in  the  Sunday  school.  He 
also  states  that  his  Sunday  school  has  made  unusually 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS      9S 

good  progress  since  the  organization  of  the  week-day 
school.  It  has  gained  in  membership  notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  many  families  formerly  connected  with  the 
church  and  Sunday  school  have  moved  away.  He  attrib- 
utes the  Sunday-school  growth  to  the  good  influence  of  the 

Chart  No.  8 

Organization  of  a  Local  Church  for 

Week-Day  Religious  Instruction 


C   V  M|  M    I 


t    t 


week-day  school  which  has  brought  the  whole  church  and 
its  activities  to  the  attention  of  a  considerable  number  of 
families  heretofore  unacquainted  with  the  church  in  any 
way.  The  cost  has  been  very  slight;  less  than  fifty  dollars 
for  the  three  months  the  school  has  been  running. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  examples  that  this  type 


94 


THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 


of  week-day  church  school  is  simple  in  organization  and 
inexpensive  to  operate.  A  high  grade  of  educational  work 
is,  nevertheless,  possible  through  its  instrumentality.  Such 
a  school  is  easily  within  reach  of  the  average  congregation. 
There  seems  no  valid  excuse  for  not  organizing  them,  by 
hundreds,  without  delay. 

The  plans  pursued  in  these  two  churches  may,  or  may 
not,  fit  conditions  in  other  churches.  The  whole  matter  of 
week-day  church-school  problems  is  to  be  discussed  in  a 
subsequent  chapter  of  this  book. 

2.  The  denominational  community  type  of  week- 
day church  schools.  (Chart  No.  9  is  a  graphic  rep- 
resentation of  the  organization  for  this  type  of  school.) 

There  are  communities  where  practically  all  the  churches 
are  carrying  on  week-day  religious  instruction  in  schools 
under  their  own  control  and  supervision  and  using,  in  each 
case,  denominational  lesson  materials.  When  the  various 
churches  in  such  a  community  act  together  in  such  matters 
as  the  securing  of  time  concessions  from  the  public  schools, 
campaigns  for  the  ingathering  of  pupils,  and  other  similar 
undertakings;    thus  indicating  that  the  spirit  of  competi- 


0 

.5  o 

1  i 

>8 

Pupils 
Teachers 
Part-time 
Teachers 
Full-time 

■jj    C 

O  •  - 

|2 
fa    to 

2% 
U  o 

11 

5 
9 

7 

»    ^                "S     IB 
T3    M              4>    £ 

Si     .eJ 

OH!       HO 

1-8    Thursday 

1-8  Wed.  P.  M. 
1-8  Wed.  P.  M. 

3-8  Wed.  A.  M. 

0) 

-o 

3 

pq 

Batavia,  Illinois 

Cuyahoga  Falls, 

Ohio 

Northfield,  Minn .... 

Somerville,  N.  J 

2 

6 
2 

1 

715   25      0 

550    13  i    0 
500   70  !    0 

480    20       0 

Little 

Little 

$2000 

Estimate 

Little 

tion  is  absent,  and  the  idea  of  religious  education  by  com- 
munity action  dominant,  the  system  may  be  called  the 
Denominational  Community  Type.     It  will  be  seen  that 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS      95 


this  type  is  really  the  denominational  type  extended  to  all 
the  churches  of  a  community  with  a  definite  program  of 
cooperation  for  the  purpose  of  reaching  all  the  children  of 
the  community  with  efficient  religious  instruction.  There 
are  four  outstanding  examples  of  this  type  of  week-day 
church  schools  in  this  country.  They  are  named  and 
certain  statistics  concerning  them  are  given  on  the  preced- 
ing page. 

The  week-day  church  schools  of  Cuyahoga  Falls  are 
among  the  oldest  in  the  country,  having  started  only 
one  year  after  the  beginning  of  the  Gary  church  schools. 
The  experiment  seems  to  have  proved  successful  there. 
Nearly  every  church  is  carrying  on  a  school  and  the 
public-school  authorities  are  enthusiastic  in  their  support 
of  the  movement. 

Chart  No.  9 


Organization  of  the   Denominational    Community 
of  Weer-Day  Church  Schools 


Ttpe 


EDltiATIOUrr      lA^TTqi|ES 

Ef    R 


T      E 


C      H 


U 


! 


In  the  fall  of  1919  the  eleven  churches  of  Batavia,  with 
the  advice  and  help  of  the  superintendent  of  schools, 
inaugurated  a  system  of  week-day  religious  instruction 
which    has    attained    some    interesting    results    and    has 


yG  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

attracted  wide  attention.  Under  the  Batavia  plan,  the 
children  are  excused  from  public  school  in  three  successive 
groups  on  Thursday,  in  order  that  they  may  receive 
religious  instruction  in  the  church  of  their  choice.  Grades 
one,  two,  and  three  go  directly  to  the  church  schools  on 
Thursday  morning  at  nine  o'clock. 

Their  class  period  lasts  until  10.15  a.  m.,  when  they  are 
dismissed  and  must  be  at  the  public  school  by  10.30. 
Grades  four,  five,  and  six  are  dismissed  from  public  school 
at  10.45  in  the  morning,  must  be  at  the  church  school  by 
11.00,  and  are  released  at  noon  to  go  to  their  homes  for 
lunch.  Grades  seven  and  eight  go  to  the  church  schools 
from  their  homes  in  the  afternoon  at  1.15.  At  2.15  these 
two  grades  are  dismissed  from  the  church  schools  and  are 
required  to  be  at  public  school  by  2.30. * 

The  following  denominations  are  cooperating  in  the  plan : 
Brethren,  Roman  Catholic,  Congregational,  Episcopal, 
Methodist,  German  Lutheran,  Swedish  Lutheran,  Swedish 
Methodist,  Swedish  Mission,  German  Evangelical,  and 
Baptist.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the 
Swedish  Methodist  Church  hold  their  classes  together,  so 
the  number  of  centers  is  ten.  No  credit  is  given  by  the 
public  schools  of  Batavia  for  work  done  in  the  church 
schools,  but  the  pupil's  church-school  grade  is  recorded  on 
his  public-school  card  in  a  space  provided  for  it  and  marked 
"Religious  Instruction." 

Most  of  the  Batavia  church  schools  meet  in  church 
parlors  or  other  rooms  fitted  up  for  them  in  church  build- 
ings. The  rector  of  the  Episcopal  church  has  fitted  up  a 
schoolroom  in  his  own  home  and  the  church-school  classes 
of  his  denomination  are  held  there. 

About  twenty  people  have  taken  part  in  the  work  of 
instruction  in  the  church  schools  of  Batavia.    The  pastor 

1  The  plan  described  here  has  been  modified  somewhat  the  present 
year  (1921). 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS      97 

is,  in  most  cases,  the  head  of  the  school  and  does  a  good 
deal  of  teaching.  All  the  teachers  serve  without  compensa- 
tion. 

The  course  of  study  in  nearly  all  the  schools  is  an 
amplification  of  the  regular  Sunday-school  material.  There 
seems  to  be  little  difficulty  experienced  in  so  expanding  the 
regular  Sunday-school  curriculum  as  to  secure  teaching 
material  for  both  the  Sunday  and  week-day  classes.  There 
is,  of  course,  under  the  present  system,  no  uniformity  in  the 
Batavia  schools,  as  a  whole.  There  are  as  many  courses  of 
study  in  the  church  schools  as  there  are  church-school 
centers. 

The  attendance  is  excellent.  During  a  period  of  thirty 
weeks  there  have  not  been  any  cases  of  truancy.  The 
enrollment  in  the  church  schools  has  very  nearly  equaled 
the  enrollment  in  the  corresponding  grades  of  the  public 
schools,  an  ideal  which  Batavia  has  more  nearly  attained 
than  any  other  community.  Of  the  7^25  pupils  in  the 
elementary  grades  only  fifty-nine,  about  eight  per  cent  of 
the  whole,  were  not  enrolled  in  the  church  schools.  This 
splendid  achievement  is  due  to  a  little  group  of  church 
workers  who  obtained  a  list  of  all  the  children  in  town.and 
worked  on  it  persistently. 

Under  the  Batavia  plan  expenses  are  very  light.  A 
small  amount  of  money  was  collected  to  pay  for  the 
printing  of  some  cards,  the  only  expense  incurred  by  the 
system  as  a  whole.  Some  additional  expense  was  incurred 
in  each  school,  but  this  was  not  large,  owing  to  the 
general  use  of  Sunday-school  material  in  the  week-day 
classes. 

Exhortations  to  economy  are  not  generally  needed  in 
religious  educational  matters;  nevertheless,  the  Batavia 
churches  have  shown  that  the  matter  of  expense  need  not 
be  a  hindrance  to  any  community  in  putting  on  week-day 
ehurch-sehool  work.     There  is  no  community  so  poor  that 


98  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

it  may  not  have  these  schools  if  it  really  wishes  to  have 
them. 

The  Northfield  schools  have  been  under  the  guidance 
of  Carleton  College  and  have  made  good  progress.  The 
pupils  are  dismissed  at  2:45  p.m.,  Wednesday  afternoon. 
Most  of  the  schools  use  their  own  Sunday-school  course 
of  study;  but  the  Methodist  school  and  the  Moravian 
school  use  the  Gary  leaflets.  One  of  the  schools  paid  its 
teachers;  the  others  secured  volunteers  for  their  work  of 
instruction. 

The  Somerville  schools  were  organized  in  the  autumn 
of  1920,  and  have  made  splendid  progress.  They  are 
under  the  advisory  control  of  the  County  Sunday  School 
Association.  Schools  are  being  conducted  by  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  the  Methodist  Church,  the  Baptist  Church, 
the  Catholic  Church,  three  Reformed  Churches,  and  the 
Jewish  synagogue.  All  the  teaching  is  done  by  volunteer 
teachers  with  the  exception  of  that  given  in  the  Jewish 
synagogue. 

Corydon,  Iowa,  has  just  organized  a  successful  system  of 
church  schools  of  the  Denominational  Community  Type. 

This  type  of  week-day  church  school  is  strong  in  secur- 
ing the  support  and  interest  of  the  individual  churches 
.since  it  puts  the  responsibility  on  them  and  makes  the 
success  of  their  own  school  rest  with  the  members  of  each 
church.  It  promises  to  work  especially  well  in  cities  of 
from  5000  to  15,000  people,  or  in  sections  of  like  size,  in 
larger  cities,  where  there  is  a  local  community  conscious- 
ness. Its  weakness  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  exceedingly 
hard  under  the  plan  to  lift  all  the  schools  to  a  high  standard 
of  excellence.  Some  schools  will  do  splendid  work.  These 
will  exist  usually  in  churches  where  the  pastor  is  deeply 
interested  in  religious  education  and  efficient  in  educa- 
tional leadership.  Other  churches  will  have  schools  of 
just  fair  efficiency.     Some  schools  are  apt  to  be  poor. 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS 


9!) 


Now  the  time  is  past  when  the  efficient  religious  educa- 
tional school  of  a  community  can  afford  to  be  indifferent 
to  the  failures  of  its  sister  educational  agencies.  The 
religious  educational  problem  of  a  community  is  one 
problem;  and  if  one  agency  fails,  to  that  extent,  all  fail. 
This  type  of  week-day  schools  will  be  greatly  improved  if 
some  form  of  efficient,  advisory  supervision  can  be  devised 
acceptable  to  all  the  cooperating  denominations.       It  is 

Chart  No.  10 
Organization  of  the    Interdenominational  Community  Type 
of  Week-Day  Church  Schools 

It 


S 


doubtful  whether  the  church  schools  of  any  community 
can  ever  do  the  work  as  it  ought  to  be  done  without  com- 
munity supervision.  This  does  not  mean  community 
control;  the  supervision  proposed  would  be  advisory 
rather  than  mandatory. 

3.  The  interdenominational  community  type  of 
week-day  church  schools.  (Chart  No.  10  is  a  graphic 
representation  of  the  organization  for  this  type  of  school.) 

In  this  type  of  week-day  church  schools  the  organization, 


100 


THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 


control,  and  maintenance  of  the  week-day  religious  in- 
struction is  delegated  by  the  cooperating  denominations 
to  a  community  board,  council,  or  committee  of  religious 
education.  The  course  of  study  is  the  same  for  all  the 
schools  under  the  controlling  body.  Religious  matters 
on  which  the  cooperating  denominations  differ  are  left  out 
of  the  instruction  given  in  such  schools.  The  following 
table  gives  a  list  of  the  cities  where  this  type  of  week-day 
church  schools  has  been  organized.  The  statistics  given 
are  for  the  school  year  of  1919-1920. 


B.S 


-  & 
v  a 


New  York 

Gary,  Indiana. 
Toledo,  Ohio.. . 


Van  Wert,  Ohio. .  . 
Evanston,  Illinois. 

Indiana  Harbor, 

Indiana 

Hobart,  Indiana  .  . 


31 

li 

2 
1 

1 

24 

2 
1 


J I 


1 

8 
0 

60 

2 

54 

1 
1 

1 
32 

1 

3 

1 

0 

a 


1.500 
3150 
2620 

850i 
900 

234[ 

1201 


1-12 
1-12 
3-6  & 
H.  S. 
1-6 
1-6 

1-6 


Varied  $4,716.45 
Gary    11,759.16 

Toledo  I  5,000.00 

Course  I 

Gary  L 

Evans- 
ton 

Evans- 
ton 
Gary 


1,707.91 
3,375.00 

1,680.00 

551.50 


In  column  9,  1  means  before  public  school,  2  means  after  public  school,  3  means 
during  public  school,  4  means  on  Saturdays. 

Of  the  schools  listed  in  the  table  just  given,  those  at 
Evanston  and  at  Indiana  Harbor  are  under  the  advisory 
superintendence  of  the  Department  of  Religious  Educa- 
tion of  Northwestern  University.  The  work  in  these  two 
communities  is  now  entering  upon  its  second  year.  The 
Evanston  schools  have  shown  a  marked  growth  over  that 
of  last  year.  The  work  began  last  year  in  Indiana  Harbor 
has  been  extended  to  other  communities  of  the  Calumet 
Region;  namely,  to  Hammond,  East  Chicago,  and  Whit- 
ing. Northwestern  University  is  also  assisting  the  move- 
ment in  Oak  Park,  Illinois,  where  week-day  religious 
instruction   has   been   started   on   an   encouraging   basis. 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS     101 

Week-day  church  schools,  of  the  type  we  are  now  consider- 
ing, have  been  organized  the  present  year  in  Austin, 
Illinois;  Wilmette,  Illinois;  Oak  Park,  Illinois;  Man- 
chester, New  Hampshire;  and  Kansas  City,  Missouri. 
All  these  new  schools  have  some  interesting  features,  some 
of  which  will  be  mentioned  later. 

The  Interdenominational  Week-Day  Church  Schools  of 
New  York  City  are  under  the  supervision  of  the  Protestant 
Teachers'  Association.  This  organization  is  not  a  Teach- 
ers' Association  of  the  usual  type  whose  chief  aim  is  the 
attainment  of  professional  efficiency.  This  one  was 
formed  with  quite  another  primary  end  in  view;  namely; 
the  bringing  of  religious  instruction  to  the  spiritually 
neglected  children  of  our  great  metropolis.  That  these 
New  York  public-school  teachers  should  see  the  religious 
educational  needs  of  childhood,  and  freely  offer  themselves 
for  service,  during  the  small  amount  of  time  left  them  for 
recreation  and  study  after  their  daily  tasks  are  done, 
is  an  event  of  profound  significance.  It  goes  far  toward 
proving  the  truth  of  Dr.  Cope's  assertion  that  American 
school-teachers  are  the  greatest  body  of  idealists  in  the 
world.  Their  altruism  is  a  rebuke  to  our  commercialized 
and  selfish  civilization. 

This  Association  now  numbers  over  4000  members. 
All  these  members  contribute  toward  the  support  of  the 
work  and  a  large  number  take  part  in  the  work  of 
teaching.  The  Association  is  now  in  active  and  definite 
cooperation  with  the  New  York  City  Sunday  School 
Association,  the  Brooklyn  Sunday  School  Union,  and  the 
Daily  Vacation  Bible  School  Association.  Under  the 
leadership  of  these  three  organizations,  the  united  Protes- 
tant churches  are  seeking  to  do  their  part  in  reaching 
with  religious  nurture  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  spirit- 
ually neglected  children  of  the  city. 

It  may  be  mentioned  here,  that  the  Catholic  teachers 


102  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

have  a  similar  association  which  is  giving  religious  instruc- 
tion to  some  4000  children,  in  twenty -five  different  centers. 
Besides  these  twenty -five  centers  where  religious  instruc- 
tion is  given  throughout  the  school  year,  the  Catholic 
Teachers'  Association  conducts  each  summer  an  extensive 
system  of  vacation  schools.  Over  24,000  children  were  en- 
rolled in  this  latter  kind  of  school  during  the  past  summer. 
The  Jews  of  New  York  City,  however,  have  gone  far 
beyond  both  Protestants  and  Catholics  in  the  organization 
of  week-day  church  schools  in  New  York  City.  They 
recognized,  some  fifteen  years  or  more  ago,  that  the 
Sunday  schools  were  inadequate  to  the  task  of  transmit- 
ting their  racial  and  religious  heritage  from  generation  to 
generation,  under  American  conditions.  At  the  same 
time  they  came  to  see  that  the  parochial  school  was  not 
fitted  for  extensive  use  in  a  democracy.  Hence  they 
turned  to  the  development  of  supplementary  religious 
instruction  on  week  days.  They  were  giving  instruction 
to  over  65,000  children  in  New  York,  in  1920.  They  have 
built  an  efficient  educational  institution  for  the  training 
of  their  teachers,  have  created  a  strong  organization  for 
the  study  of  their  educational  problems  and  for  the  general 
oversight  of  Jewish  education,  and  have  undertaken  exten- 
sion work  through  which  they  are  reaching  many  of  the 
Jewish  children  and  youths  who  are  not  able  to  attend  the 
week-day  schools.  Protestant  denominations  have  much 
to  learn  from  the  extensive  and  persistent  efforts  of  the 
Hebrew  people  to  reach  and  hold  for  the  faith  of  their  fore- 
fathers, the  children  of  our  great  cities.  They  realize 
that  without  an  efficient  educational  system  they  cannot 
reasonably  hope  for  the  survival  of  their  faith.  When  we 
think  of  the  army  of  nominally  Protestant  people,  who  are 
yet  unchurched,  we  may  well  ask  ourselves  whether 
religious  education  is  not  as  important  for  us  as  it  is  for 
the  Jews. 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS     1d:5 

The  week-day  church  schools  of  Gary,  Indiana,  were  in 
January,  1921,  engaged  in  their  seventh  year  of  work. 
The  interdenominational  plan,  begun  four  years  ago,  has 
gradually  grown  until  it  has  absorbed  all  of  the  denomina- 
tional schools  with  the  exception  of  the  Episcopal.  Eighl 
denominations  are  at  present  cooperating  in  the  conduct 
of  the  community  schools. 

Toledo  is  now  in  the  fifth  year  of  its  week-day  church- 
school  experiment.  During  the  school  year,  of  1919—1920, 
the  community  schools  of  Toledo  enrolled  2620  pupils,  a 
gain  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-nine  per  cent  over  that  of 
the  preceding  year.  This  remarkable  increase  was  due 
to  the  securing  of  more  adequate  financial  support  for  the 
schools,  and  to  the  reorganization  of  the  instruction  under 
trained  educational  leadership.  It  is  generally  agreed,  in 
Toledo,  that  the  enrollment  could  have  been  made  twice 
as  great  had  the  means  for  receiving  the  pupils  been 
adequate. 

The  Van  Wert  schools  are  making  steady  growth,  the 
present  enrollment  being  ten  per  cent  greater  than  last 
year.  Eighty-six  per  cent  of  the  public-school  pupils,  for 
vhom  religious  instruction  is  provided,  have  chosen  it 
voluntarily.  Over  a  hundred  junior  high-school  pupils 
asked  that  the  religious  instruction  which  they  had  last 
year  be  continued,  but  the  request  had  to  be  denied  on 
account  of  insufficient  funds.  That  the  childhood  of  our 
great  rich  country  should  ask  for  religious  instruction, 
and  ask  in  vain,  because  there  is  no  money  to  meet  the 
trifling  expense,  is  a  sin  and  a  shame. 

Reference  to  the  week-day  church  schools  of  these 
various  communities  will  be  made  in  the  following 
chapters  where  we  are  to  take  up  the  different  problems 
connected  with  the  organization  and  maintenance  of 
week-day  religious  instruction.  In  closing  this  chapter 
some  of   the   strong   points   of   the   Interdenominational 


101  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

Community  Type  of   week-day  church   schools   will   be 
considered. 

1.  This  type  is  economical.  It  enables  the  Protes- 
tant forces  cooperating  to  plant  one  church  school  besides 
every  public  school,  instead  of  having  several  church 
schools  near  each  public  school.  The  chart  on  this  page 
shows  the  large  financial  saving  made  in  Gary  due  to  the 
bringing  of  the  week-day  church  schools  under  interdenom- 
inational supervision. 

Chart  No.  11 

YEARLY  COST  PER   PUPIL  FOR  INSTRUCTION 
WEEK-DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS 

INTERDENOM.  *3.25EHMBHffl 

INTERDENOMINATIONAL     COOPERATION 
MAKES  WEEK-DAY  RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION 
FINANCIALLY  POSSIBLE 

2.  This  type  of  school  is  efficient.  It  brings  the 
week-day  instruction  under  one  management  and  super- 
vision, so  that  all  receive  trained  superintendence.  The 
course  of  study  is  the  same  for  all.  The  elimination  of 
denominational  instruction  from  the  week-day  church- 
school  curriculum  gives  them  an  opportunity  to  emphasize 
the  Christian  fundamentals,  leaving  denominational  mat- 
ters to  the  Sunday-school  instruction.  This  division  of 
labor,  if  rightly  carried  out,  is  in  the  interest  of  efficiency. 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS     105 


3.  This  type  of  school  tends  to  elevate  religious 
education  to  the  dignity  of  a  life  calling.     When 

Protestant  denominations  cooperate  in  their  week-day 
church-school  enterprises,  the  task  of  the  week-day 
church-school  teacher  becomes  large  enough  to  demand 
all  her  time.  This  is  not  usually  the  case  where  the  week- 
day schools  are  denominational.     The  matter  is  one  of 

Chart  No.  12 

Growth  of  the  Week-Day  Church  School  Movement 


Communities 

60r 


in  Ten  Years 


30 


ze 


/o 


U6i 

A 

1 

/ 

/    _ 

£ 

I 

f 

6 

/f/J     rt/3     M9     /W     W6     /9/7     /f/8      /f/f     /?zo    /92J 

Years 

importance.  The  religious  instruction  of  children  is  a 
task  second  to  none  in  importance.  It  merits  a  whole- 
souled,  whole-life  service;  and  such  a  devotion  to  it  has 
never  been  possible  in  any  large  way.  That  one  may  give 
the  highest  and  fullest  devotion  to  any  task  it  must  be  his 
vocation  and  not  merely  his  avocation.  There  has  been 
no  opportunity  for  any  considerable  number  of  people  to 
make  the  religious   instruction  of  children  a  life  work. 


106  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

Chart  No.  13 
Communities  Where   Week-Day  Religious  Instruction 
Has  Been  Organized 


Chart  No.  14 

Communities  Where   Week-Day  Religious  Instruction 
Has  Been  Organized 


(The  difference  in  the  number  of  dots  on  these  two  maps  represents  the 
increase  in  the  number  of  communities  carrying  on  week-day  religious 
instruction  for  the  first  four  months  of  the  school  year,  1920-1921.) 


THREE  TYPES  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS     107 

This  task  which  an  archangel  might  desire  has  been  per- 
force a  side  issue  even  with  those  who  would  gladly  give 
to  it  their  best  and  their  all.  If  the  interdenominational 
week-day  church  schools  are  instrumental  in  bringing  back 
to  the  Church  its  long-lost  teaching  ministry,  they  will 
perform  a  service  of  inestimable  value. 

4.  This  type  of  school  is  democratic.  It  helps  to 
give  that  sense  of  community  solidarity  and  of  community 
responsibility  which  are  essential  to  all  movements  for 
community  betterment. 

The  weak  spot  in  this  type  of  week-day  church-school 
organization  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  individual  churches 
are  apt  to  be  lacking  in  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  the 
enterprise.  There  are  too  many  organizations  now  which 
are  supported  by  church  people  and  yet  are  quite  inde- 
pendent of  any  interchurch  control.  Such  organizations 
are  essentially  parasitic.  The  week-day  church-school 
movement  must  do  something  more  than  contribute 
another  of  these  organizations  to  our  already  large  number. 
Each  cooperating  church  must  in  some  way  be  brought  to 
consider  that  the  week-day  church-school  enterprise,  even 
though  it  be  on  an  interdenominational  basis,  is  its  own 
undertaking.  Each  church  must  assume  responsibility 
for  the  support  of  the  schools  and  must  cooperate  in  every 
way  for  their  successful  operation.  If  this  kind  of  con- 
sciousness of  responsibility  and  this  kind  of  cooperation 
cannot  be  secured,  the  undertaking  of  week-day  instruc- 
tion on  an  interdenominational  basis  is  an  experiment  of 
doubtful  advisability. 

The  week-day  church-school  movement  has  made  rapid 
progress  during  the  first  five  months  of  the  present  school 
year,  the  number  of  communities  carrying  on  the  work 
having  increased  during  that  time  by  more  than  two 
hundred  per  cent.  The  organization  of  week-day  church 
schools  has  been  reported  during  the  past  few  weeks  from 


108 


THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 


the  cities  listed  below.  In  most  cases  classes  are  already 
meeting,  but  in  a  few  cases  the  organization  has  not  yet 
reached  that  stage,  as  these  lines  are  being  written. 

Communities  Organizing  Week-Day  Church  Schools 

During  the  First  Five  Months  of  the  Present 

School  Year 


1.  Somerville,  N.  J. 

2.  Fort  Collins,  Colo. 

3.  Mankato,  Minn. 

4.  Wampum,  Pa. 

5.  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

6.  Chicago,  111. 

7.  Oak  Park,  111. 

8.  Aberdeen,  S.  Dak. 

9.  Corydon,  Iowa. 

10.  Waukesha,  Wis. 

11.  Hoboken,N.  J. 

12.  East  Orange,  N.  J. 

13.  South  Orange,  N.  J. 

14.  Schenectady,  N.  Y. 

15.  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
1C.  Kansas  City,  Mo. 

17.  Topeka,  Kan. 

18.  Wichita,  Kan. 

19.  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

20.  Berkeley,  Cal. 

21.  Manchester,  N.  H. 


22.  Boston,  Mass. 

23.  Hammond,  Ind. 

24.  Whiting,  Ind. 

25.  East  Chicago,  Ind. 

26.  Wilmette,  111. 

27.  Austin,  111. 

28.  Jersey  City,  N.  J. 

29.  Geneva,  N.  Y. 

30.  Canisteo,  N.  Y. 

31.  01ean,N.  Y. 

32.  Kingston,  N.  Y. 

33.  Aurora,  N.  Y. 

34.  Independence,  Mo. 

35.  Iron  River,  Wis. 

36.  Memphis,  Tenn. 

37.  Little  Rock,  Ark. 

38.  Oshkosh,  Wis. 

39.  Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y. 

40.  Oakland,  Cal. 

41.  Albert  Lea,  Minn. 

42.  Red  Wing,  Minn. 


CHAPTER  V 


Some  Contributions  of  the  Week  Day 
Church  School  Movement  Toward 
the  Solution  of  Religious  Educa- 
tional Problems 


CHAPTER  V 

Some  Contributions  of  the  Week  Day  Church  School 

Movement  Toward  the  Solution  of  Religious 

Educational  Problems 

When  one  reads  the  Sunday-school  literature,  published 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago,  he  is  impressed  with  the 
fact  that  the  problems  of  religious  education  now  are  the 
same  as  those  with  which  other  generations  have  wrestled. 
In  some  cases,  a  good  deal  has  been  done  toward  the  solu- 
tion of  religious  educational  problems;  but  in  other  cases, 
hardly  anything  has  been  accomplished.  It  is  doubtless 
true  that  the  efforts  for  the  betterment  of  religious  educa- 
tion have  not  always  been  what  they  should  have  been, 
and  yet  in  some  cases,  the  results  attained  are  not  com- 
mensurate with  the  effort  expended.  Faithful  and  earnest 
efforts,  so  to  improve  the  educational  agencies  of  the 
Church  as  to  make  them  efficient  in  instruction  and  suc- 
cessful in  reaching  all  the  children  and  youth  of  the  land, 
have  not  been  wanting  in  any  decade  for  a  hundred  years, 
and  of  late  such  efforts  have  redoubled.  When  efforts  of 
the  kind  named  are  continued  for  years  and  continue  to 
bear  but  meager  fruitage,  it  is  time  to  make  inquiry 
as  to  whether  the  hindering  cause  may  not  exist,  as 
inherent  deficiencies  in  the  agencies  with  which  educa- 
tional leaders  work,  rather  than  in  the  workers  themselves. 
A  conviction  that  the  facts  suggested  in  the  statement 
just  made  are  true,  regarding  the  primary  educational 
agencies  of  the  Church,  is  gaining  ground  in  Protestant 
circles.  This  conviction  is  the  primary  incentive  for  the 
organization  of  supplementary  religious  educational  agen- 
cies.    They  have  grown  out  of  the  feeling  that  the  custo- 

lll 


112  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

mary  educational  agencies  of  the  Church,  however  much 
they  may  be  improved,  will  still  remain  inadequate  to  the 
whole  of  the  educational  task  of  the  Christian  religion. 
Before  a  new  educational  agency  is  given  a  large  place  in 
the  program  of  the  Church,  it  should  be  able  to  demon- 
strate its  ability  to  solve  some  of  the  educational  problems, 
or  at  least  to  make  an  important  contribution  toward  that 
end.  It  is  the  object  of  the  present  chapter  to  show  that 
such  claims  can  be  justly  made  for  the  week-day  church- 
school  movement. 

1.  The  week-day  church  school  gives  promise  of 
solving  the  many  problems  growing  out  of  the  here- 
tofore inadequate  time  provided  for  religious  in- 
struction. The  time  provided  for  religious  instruction 
has  been  so  meager  that  efficient  teaching  has  been  next 
to  impossible.  But  the  teacher  has  not  been  the  only  one 
for  whom  the  lack  of  sufficient  time  for  religious  instruc- 
tion has  made  problems.  The  denominational  Sunday- 
school  lesson  writers  have  been  compelled  to  confine  their 
materials  within  the  same  narrow  time  limits.  That 
richness  of  illustration  so  helpful  to  efficient  teaching  has 
been  sacrificed.  Much  valuable  Biblical  material  has  been 
omitted  entirely  or  treated  in  a  more  or  less  superficial 
way  because  there  was  no  use  of  putting  more  into  the 
lessons  than  the  teachers  had  time  to  teach.  The  rich 
heritage  of  extra-Biblical  material  so  abundant  in  the 
poetry,  hymns,  and  art  of  the  world  has  remained  prac- 
tically untouched.  Handwork,  dramatization  of  Bible 
stories,  and  all  other  expressional  activities  have  been 
practically  impossible  in  Sunday-school  classes  because  of 
inadequate  time  allowance.  All  these  things  have  reacted 
against  the  Sunday  school,  causing  many  children  to  set 
its  value  at  a  very  low  figure  in  comparison  with  the  public 
school.  Not  a  few  teachers  have  abandoned  Sunday- 
school  activity  because  they  felt  that  the  time  allowed 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL    113 

for  teaching'  was  so  brief  as  to  make  any  genuine  instruc- 
tion impossible.  Some  excellent  teachers  are  so  con- 
stituted that  if  they  cannot  do  good  work  they  prefer  not 
to  do  any. 

This  inadequacy  of  our  religious  educational  agencies 
has  been  treated  at  some  length  in  a  preceding  chapter,  so 
it  is  necessary  now  only  to  show  how  the  week-day  church 
school  overcomes  it.  The  week-day  church  school  adds 
from  an  hour  to  two  and  one-half  hours  a  week  to  the  time 

Chart  No.  15 


RELIGIOUS    INSTRUCTION  PROVIDED 

HOURS  PER  TEAR 

Protestant  zsmt 

Catholic  iiiiibhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihmbii  inimi  11 

Jewish  1    iiiii—hiiiihmiii ■■«■ 

Available  in  Gart  zoitmmammmaaK^tgxmtsm 


THE  WEEK-DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 
GIVES  THE  PROTESTANT  CHILD  A  CHANCE 


set  aside  for  religious  instruction.  If  this  increased  time 
is  found  to  be  still  insufficient,  the  week-day  church-school 
plan  can  be  so  extended  as  to  secure  additional  time.  If 
a  community  avails  itself  of  such  agencies  as  the  week-day 
church  school  and  the  vacation-church  school,  instead  of 
having  a  meager  twenty-five  hours,  or  at  most,  fifty  hours, 
it  will  have  over  two  hundred  hours  a  year  for  religious 
instruction.  This  will  give  time  for  efficient  teaching,  for 
recitations  close  enough  together  to  have  pedagogical 
value  for  curriculum   material,   abundant   enough  to   be 


Hi  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

interesting  and  helpful,  and  for  expressional  activities  that 
will  make  the  religious  truths  taught  an  integral  part  of 
ihe  child's  everyday  life.  It  will  put  Protestant  relig- 
ious education  on  a  par  with  that  of  Jewrs  and  Roman 
Catholics.  It  will  give  the  Protestant  child  a  chance  to 
become  religious. 

2.  The  week-day  church  school  is  helping  to  secure 
7  regularity  of  attendance  at  religious  instruction 
classes.  Every  public-school  teacher  knows  how  impor- 
tant regularity  of  attendance  is  in  the  secular  education 
of  a  child.  If  a  child  misses  one  day  a  week  at  public 
school,  he  gets  hardly  more  than  half  of  the  instructional 
value  of  the  recitations;  if  he  misses  two  days  a  week, 
he  had  almost  as  well  not  attend  at  all.  The  Sunday- 
school  teachers  too,  are  not  unaware  of  the  great  impor- 
tance of  regular  attendance,  and  they  have  been  making 
faithful  efforts  to  attain  it  from  time  immemorial.  The 
fact  that  the  average  Sunday-school  pupil  attends  only 
about  half  the  time,  would  seem  to  indicate  that  Sunday- 
school  teachers  have  not  been  largely  successful  in  their 
efforts  to  secure  regularity  of  attendance  on  the  part  of 
their  pupils. 

Regularity  of  attendance  is  much  more  easily  secured  in 
the  week-day  church  school  than  in  the  Sunday  school. 
Circumstances  are  in  favor  of  regularity  of  attendance  in 
the  former,  against  it  in  the  latter.  Going  to  school  is 
the  week-day  business  of  children.  The  regularity  of 
attendance  characteristic  of  the  public  school  naturally 
goes  over  to  the  wreek-day  church  school  in  cooperation 
with  it.  On  week  days  parents  are  usually  engaged  in 
their  customary  occupations,  so  that  their  desires  for 
recreation  do  not  tempt  them  to  betake  themselves  and 
their  children  away  from  the  place  where  religious  instruc- 
tion is  being  given.  The  Sunday  school  must  compete 
with  the  Sunday  automobile,  the  Sunday  excursion,  and 


1 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL    115 

in  some  communities  with  the  Sunday  "movie."  The 
week-day  church  school  has  far  less  potent  rivals  of  the 
kind  named.  More  ample  time  for  classroom  work, 
better  seats,  and  better  equipment,  all  have  a  part  in  mak- 
ing the  attendance  at  the  week-day  church  school  regular. 
The  accompanying  chart,  No.  16,  shows  the  higher  per- 
centage of  attendance  attained  in  the  week-day  church 

Chart  No.  16 

PERCENTAGE  of  ATTENDANCE 

Sunday    School 
Beginners 
Primary 
Junior 
Intern. 
Senior 

1st.  Grade 

2d.  n 
3d.      ** 

4th.     ., 

5TH.      „ 

6TH.      m 

7th.  .. 
8th.  .. 
High  School  76 


GARY     INDIANA 

schools  of  Gary  than  in  the  Sunday  schools  of  the  same 
city.  The  percentages  are  figured  on  the  customary 
public-school  method  of  computing  attendance  statistics. 
That  is,  if  every  child  enrolled  is  present  every  day  the 
schools  are  in  session,  the  percentage  of  attendance  is  one 
hundred  per  cent.  In  other  words,  no  deductions  are  made 
for  late  enrollments  and  withdrawals.  Sunday  schools  do 
not  usually  compute  their  attendance  statistics  in  this 


116  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

manner,  but  statistics  so  computed  have  a  value  beyond 
those  computed  in  other  ways,  and  it  has  therefore  been 
the  method  used  in  this  case. 

3.  The  week-day  church  schools  are  calling  to- 
gether and  developing  a  body  of  trained  teachers  of 
religion  and  skilled  supervisors  of  religious  instruc- 
tion. The  need  for  such  religious  educators  has  been 
mentioned  in  a  preceding  chapter.  In  a  dozen  different 
American  communities,  teachers  of  religion  to  children 
and  youth  are  giving  a  part  of  their  time  to  the  work  of 
week-day  church  schools  and  receiving  suitable  compensa- 
tion for  their  services.  In  half  as  many  more,  these 
teachers  of  religion  are  giving  full  time  to  the  work  of 
the  week-day  church  schools.  The  teaching  of  religion 
to  children  is  their  vocation,  their  calling.  The  Church 
has  had  no  catechists  since  the  early  centuries  of  its 
existence.  The  week-day  church  school  is  bringing  them 
back. 

The  development  of  week-day  religious  instruction 
throughout  the  nation  will  have  a  profound  effect  on  edu- 
cation, in  general.  Already  progressive  colleges,  uni- 
versities, and  theological  seminaries  are  getting  ready  to 
meet  the  demand  which  they  foresee  for  teachers  of  religion. 
One  does  not  need  a  prophet's  vision  to  see  that  we  are 
entering  an  era  when  the  teaching  of  the  great  truths  of 
our  religion  will  be  undertaken  more  seriously  and  more 
extensively  than  ever  before. 

4.  The  week-day  church  school  will  aid  the  efforts 
being  made  to  correlate  the  educational  agencies  of 
the  Church.  As  has  been  pointed  out  on  a  preceding 
page,  the  week-day  church  school  possesses  certain  inher- 
ent possibilities,  which  fit  it  to  become  the  central  and 
unifying  organization  for  a  correlated  system  of  religious 
educational  agencies.  The  emergence  of  this  new  educa- 
tional agency  of  the  Church  has  called  for  the  organization 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL    117 

of  councils  of  religious  education  in  the  individual  church 
and  in  the  community.  The  Sunday  school  had  long 
held  the  field  without  any  rival  worthy  of  the  name. 
There  has  been  no  rivalry  between  the  Sunday  school  and 
the  week-day  church  school,  but  the  fact  that  another 
educational  agency,  which  gives  promise  of  large  growth 
has  appeared  within  the  Church  has  compelled  church 
leaders  to  think  of  a  readjustment  and  redistribution  of 
the  educational  task  of  the  Church.  It  is  becoming  evi- 
dent that  the  logical  conception  for  the  individual  church 
is  that  which  thinks  of  its  educational  task  as  one,  which 
puts  the  task  under  one  management,  and  delegates 
specific  portions  of  the  task  to  particular  agencies.  The 
individual  church  needs  a  church  school,  with  a  Sunday 
session,  a  number  of  week-day  sessions,  a  vacation  session; 
with  classes  suited  to  the  religious  needs  of  all  from  the 
cradle  to  extreme  old  age.  This  does  not  mean,  of  course, 
that  the  individual  church  may  not  unite  with  other 
churches  in  the  conducting  of  some  phases  of  its  church- 
school  work. 

5.  The  week-day  church  school  is  helping  to  build 
up  an  adequate  and  comprehensive  course  of  study 
for  religious  instruction.  These  schools  have  not  only 
made  such  a  course  possible  by  securing  more  time  for  reli- 
gious instruction,  as  has  been  noted,  but  they  are  making 
contributions  toward  such  a  course.  They  have  given  to 
religious  educational  experimentation  a  larger  and  more 
favorable  opportunity  than  it  ever  enjoyed  before.  They 
have  given  handwork  and  dramatization  a  place  in  the 
religious  educational  curriculum.  They  have  led  de- 
nominations to  increase  the  amount  of  lesson  material, 
prepared  for  religious  teaching,  by  nearly  one  hundred 
per  cent.  They  are  helping  to  hasten  the  day  when  there 
shall  be  a  course  of  religious  instruction  wKich  contains 
abundant  Biblical  material,  and  which  also  gathers  into 


118  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

itself  the  religious  values  so  abundant  in  the  natural 
world,  in  great  hymns,  in  great  paintings,  and  in  the  great 
lives  of  secular  history. 

6.  The  week-day  church  school  is  helping  to  secure 
proper  housing  and  equipment  for  religious  educa- 
tional agencies.  The  trained  teachers  and  supervisors 
who  are  coming  into  the  week-day  church  schools  are 
insisting  on  right  teaching  conditions  and  suitable  equip- 
ment. Sunday-school  classes  often  hold  their  recitation 
periods  with  a  dozen  classes  crowded  together  in  a  com- 
paratively small  room,  where  the  teacher  can  hardly  be 
heard  without  shouting  at  the  top  of  her  voice.  Such 
conditions  are  intolerable  to  a  trained  teacher.  In  matters 
of  housing  and  equipment  the  week-day  church  schools 
have  broken  away  from  the  Sunday-school  customs  and 
are  following  the  models  set  up  by  the  public  schools. 
Each  class  has  a  room  to  itself,  usually  well  equipped  with 
such  teaching  materials  as  blackboards,  maps,  charts,  and 
educational  pictures.  Neither  the  church  auditorium  nor 
the  arrangement  of  Sunday-school  rooms  called  the  Akron 
plan  is  a  suitable  meeting  place  for  a  real  school,  and  the 
week-day  church-school  leaders  have  broken  away  from 
both  wherever  they  have  had  the  opportunity.  They 
have  usually  found  some  small  room  in  a  church  building 
and  have  fitted  it  up  with  desks  and  other  school  furniture. 
In  Gary,  one  building  has  been  erected  for  week-day 
church-school  use  and  is  used  exclusively  for  week-day 
religious  instruction.  It  is  the  first  of  its  kind  in  America. 
Though  an  inexpensive  building,  it  is  neatly  furnished  and 
well-suited  for  educational  purposes. 

This  tendency  to  insist  on  real  school  buildings  and  real 
school  equipment  for  the  church-school  agencies  is  begin- 
ning to  be  felt  throughout  the  Church  at  large.  The  newer 
types  of  church  buildings  show  a  distinct  tendency  toward 
the  creation  of  church-school  housing  facilities  after  the 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL    119 

public-school  model  and  comparable  with  public-school 
standards. 

7.  The  week-day  church  schools  are  helping  to 
emphasize  the  importance  of  expressional  activity 
in  religious  education  and  to  secure  such  activities 
an  adequate  place  in  the  religious  educational  pro- 
gram. They  are  doing  this  not  only  by  securing  more 
adequate  time  for  religious  instruction,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  but  by  making  notable  contributions  to  the 
subject  matter  and  teaching  methods  of  such  expressional 
activities  as  handwork,  notebook  making,  dramatization 
of  Bible  stories,  and  social  service  projects.  In  some  of 
the  week-day  church-school  courses,  an  effort  is  made  to 
secure  the  expression  of  all  religious  truths  taught  in  the 
classroom,  by  appropriate  conduct  in  the  school,  in  the 
home,  and  on  the  playground. 

8.  The  week-day  church  schools  are  making  a  con- 
tribution to  general  pedagogical  science.  Reference 
has  repeatedly  been  made  in  these  pages  to  the  fact  that 
the  week-day  church  schools  are  following  public-school 
models.  It  is  not  meant  to  be  understood  that  the  week- 
day church  schools  are  slavishly  imitating  the  public 
schools,  nor  is  it  implied  that  the  week-day  church  schools 
are  mere  recipients  of  benefits  giving  nothing  in  return. 
Public-school  education  will  ultimately  receive  from 
religious  education  just  as  great  benefits  as  any  it  has 
given.  Religious  educators  are  helping  public-school 
educators  to  see  the  wholeness  of  the  educational  task  as 
they  had  not  seen  it  before.  Some  farseeing  public-school 
educators  have  realized,  for  some  time,  that  there  could 
be  no  complete  and  satisfactory  educational  scheme 
which  did  not  provide  for  the  culture  of  the  religious 
faculties,  but  the  number  of  them  who  have  realized  this 
truth  has  been  small.  The  growth  of  week-day  religious 
instruction  with  its  accompanying  development  of  a  more 


120        THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

extensive  literature  of  religious  pedagogy,  will  help  many 
public-school  educators  to  see  a  new  educational  light. 
It  is  not  unreasonable  to  hope  that  the  growth  of  religious 
education  will  do  a  great  service  to  educational  science 
in  spiritualizing  the  educative  process.  There  can  be  no 
education,  worthy  of  the  name,  where  there  is  not  con- 
fidence, sympathy,  and  deep  affection  between  the  teacher 

Chart  No.  17 

Enrollments  in   Gary 
Public  Schools   8iao 


Week-Day  Church  Schools  3sco 


Sunday  Schools  -ages  6  to  is-  2600 


The  Week-Day  Church  Schools  of  Gary  Reach  a 
Thousand    More  Children  than 
the  Sunday  Schools 

and  the  pupil.  This  truth  is  recognized  somewhat  in 
public-school  education,  but  more  generally  in  religious 
education,  though  it  is  as  true  in  the  one  as  in  the  other. 
The  religious  teacher  will  come  to  her  task  as  one  called  of 
God,  and  her  coming  will  help  to  raise  the  whole  teaching 
profession  to  a  like  consciousness  with  its  consequent 
devotion. 
9.  The  week-day  church  schools  are  an  important 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL    121 

instrumentality  for  reaching  the  millions  of  Ameri- 
can children  who  are  spiritually  untaught.    How  to 

reach  and  hold  the  twenty-seven  millions  of  American 
children  growing  up  in  spiritual  illiteracy,  is  a  problem  of 
tremendous  seriousness.  Any  agency  that  gives  evidence 
that,  it  is  of  use  in  solving  the  problem  deserves  earnest  con- 
sideration. We  have  laid  upon  the  Sunday  school  a  bur- 
den it  will  never  be  able  to  bear.     During  the  years  from 

Chart  No.  18 

PERCENTAGE  of  PUBLIC  SCHOOL  PUPILS 
IM  WEEK-DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS 

Gary       Grades    I- 12       44  Per  Cent 


Van  Wert    Grades  1-6      87  Per  Cent 


Batavia    Grades  1-8    97  Per  Cent 


Batavia  Is  Meaning  the  Goal 

1916  to  1920,  Sunday-school  attendance  declined  by  many 
millions,  at  a  time  when  the  population  of  the  country  was 
steadily  increasing.  The  overburdened  Sunday  school 
could  not  bear  the  added  strain  of  war  conditions.  In  re- 
cent months  the  adverse  tide  has  been  turned  in  some 
localities,  but  not  in  all.  It  is  quite  evident  that  the  Sun- 
day school  cannot  continue  to  bear  the  educational  task  of 
the  Church  practically  unaided.     There  must  be  supple- 


122        THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

mental  religious  educational  agencies.  Our  ideal  and  goal 
should  be  the  reaching  and  holding  of  every  child  which 
the  Protestant  churches  can  rightly  claim.  Somewhat  less 
than  forty  per  cent  of  them  are  being  reached  and  of  the 
number  reached  only  about  forty  per  cent  are  being 
brought  into  the  Church.  Forty  per  cent  of  forty  per  cent  is 
sixteen  per  cent.  Our  religious  educational  agencies  are 
only  about  sixteen  per  cent  efficient.  For  every  child 
reached  and  held  for  the  Church,  five  are  lost.     Every 

Chart  No.  19 

PERCENTAGE  or  PUPILS  RECEIVING 

HO  OTHER  RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION 

Indiana  Harbor 

Toledo  ■» 

G2L 
ART  HE 

HOBART  HE 

If         Uf 

Van  Wert 


Week  Day  Church  Schools 

community  where  week-day  church  schools  have  been 
organized  can  show  a  record,  in  this  matter,  better  than 
the  average.  A  comparison  of  the  enrollment  in  religious 
educational  institutions  with  the  enrollment  in  the  public 
schools  is  a  good  index  as  to  how  well  the  churches  of  a 
community  are  discharging  their  educational  task. 

A  typical  city  of  25,000  people  shows  an  enrollment  in 
institutions  for  religious  instruction  equal  to  forty  per  cent 
of  the  public-school  enrollment. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL    1*3 

Gary,  Indiana,  a  city  of  55,000  people,  shows  an  enroll- 
ment in  Sunday  schools  and  week-day  church  schools  equal 
to  fifty-eight  per  cent  of  the  public-school  enrollment,  in 
corresponding  grades. 

Van  Wert,  Ohio,  a  city  of  9000  people,  shows  an  enroll- 
ment in  week-day  church  schools  equal  to  eighty-seven  per 
cent  of  the  public-school  enrollment,  in  corresponding 
grades. 

Batavia,  Illinois,  a  city  of  5000  people,  has  ten  week-day 
church  schools  and  the  enrollment  in  them  is  ninety-seven 
per  cent  of  the  enrollment  in  the  eight  corresponding  public- 
school  grades.  Only  fifteen  children  in  the  city  are  not  en- 
rolled in  the  church-school  classes.  Batavia  is  nearing 
the  goal.  When  any  community  has  as  many  children  in 
institutions  for  religious  instruction  as  it  has  in  the  public- 
schools  that  community  is  to  be  congratulated;  it  is  not 
far  from  the  Kingdom. 

Even  stronger  evidence,  than  that  just  given,  of  the 
ability  of  the  week-day  church  school  to  reach  the  spiritu- 
ally untaught  children  of  the  land  is  shown  by  the  following 
facts: 

In  Van  Wert,  eleven  per  cent  of  the  children  enrolled  in 
the  week-day  church  schools  were  not  receiving  any 
religious  instruction  at  the  time  they  joined  the  church- 
school  classes. 

In  Gary,  thirty -five  per  cent  of  the  children  enrolled  in 
the  week-day  church  schools  were  not  receiving  any  reli- 
gious instruction  at  the  time  they  joined  the  church-school 
classes. 

In  Toledo,  forty  per  cent  of  the  children  enrolled  in  the 
week-day  church  schools  were  not  receiving  any  religious 
instruction  at  the  time  they  joined  the  church-school 
classes. 

In  Indiana  Harbor,  forty-five  per  cent  of  the  children 
enrolled  in  the  week-day  church-school  classes  were  not 


Ui 


THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 


receiving  any  religious  instruction  at  the  time  they  joined 
the  church-school  classes.     See  Chart  No.  19. 

The  week-day  church  school  is  especially  successful  in 
reaching  the  children  of  foreign-speaking  homes.  Statis- 
tics as  to  the  nationality  of  some  1600  of  the  week-day 
church-school  pupils  of  Gary  were  examined.  Thirty 
nationalities  were  represented  in  this  number,  as  indicated 
in  the  following  graphic  chart. 


Chart  No.  20 


Pupils  of  ForeisnBorn  and  Colored   Parentage 


.-■■.!..'■...* 

Grc<L0.U. 
HcbtifeW 

Slovak 
'dmcIgu* 


Gary  Week-Day    Church   Schools 


This  chart  shows  something  of  the  possibilities  of  the 
week-day  church  school  as  an  agency  for  Christian  Ameri- 
canization. 

Many  of  these  foreign-born  parents  are  accustomed  to 
some  form  of  week-day  religious  instruction  in  the  country 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL    125 

of  their  birth,  and  consequently  take  to  it  quite  readily  in 
America. 

The  week-day  church  school  gathers  into  its  membership 
children  of  many  different  denominations.  In  every  com- 
munity there  are  apt  to  be  a  good  many  people  holding  to 
some  demonination  which  is  not   strong  enough  in  the 

Chart  No.  "21 

DENOMINATIONAL    AFFILIATION 
OF  1668  PUPILS 


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U.s.,«..i 

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GARY    WEEK-DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOLS 

community  to  maintain  a  church.  Sometimes  the  children 
of  these  people  attend  Sunday  schools  of  other  denomi- 
nations, but  quite  often  they  do  not.  Such  children  come 
readily  to  a  week-day  church  school,  especially  if  it  is 
operated  interdenominationally,  thus  eliminating  any  in- 
struction which  might  contradict  the  tenets  of  the  denomi- 


126  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

nation  to  which  the  parents  of  these  children  belong.  The 
interdenominational  week-day  church  schools  of  Gary  have 
enrolled  children  of  twenty-nine  different  denominations 
as  indicated  in  Chart  No.  21. 

The  week-day  church  school  gathers  together  the  chil- 
dren of  our  much  divided  Protestantism. 

The  week-day  church  school  not  only  gathers  the  spirit- 
ually neglected  childhood  of  the  land  into  its  own  classes; 
it  wins  them  for  the  Christian  life  and  the  Church.  The 
teacher  of  an  Intermediate  class  in  the  Gary  week-day 
church  schools  told  the  author  that  every  member  of  his 
class  decided  for  the  Christian  life,  and  they  joined  the 
Church  except  in  the  cases  where  parents  refused  to  let 
them  do  so. 

10.  The  week-day  church  schools  are  helping  to 
secure  a  better  distribution  of  religious  educational 
agencies.  The  faulty  distribution  of  religious  educa- 
tional agencies  has  been  pointed  out  in  a  preceding  chapter. 
In  four  of  our  larger  cities,  the  week-day  church  schools 
have  broken  away  from  the  unfortunate  distribution  of 
religious  educational  agencies, which  a  lack  of  interdenomi- 
national cooperation  in  the  planting  of  church  enterprises 
has  inflicted  on  so  many  communities.  They  use  church 
buildings  if  they  are  near  enough  to  the  public  schools  to 
allow  children  to  pass  from  public-school  building  to 
church  building  conveniently,  otherwise  they  plant  a  week- 
day church  school  in  some  building  which  is  conveniently 
near  the  public  school,  or  they  erect  a  building  of  their  own 
for  religious  instruction.  The  public  schools  of  a  city  are, 
almost  without  exception,  so  distributed  as  to  be  con- 
veniently near  the  children  of  the  city.  By  following  the 
distribution  of  the  public  schools,  rather  than  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  churches,  the  week-day  church  schools  bring 
religious  instruction  within  reach  of  thousands  of  spiritu- 
ally neglected  children. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  WEEK  DAY  CIUHCH  SCHOOL    127 

These  problems  are  fundamental.  The  interest  of  the 
Kingdom  demands  their  solution.  It  is  hoped  that 
enough  has  been  said  to  convince  many  earnest-minded 
men  and  women  of  the  Church  that  the  week-day  church- 
school  movement  is  an  instrumentality  which  gives  prom- 
ise of  large  usefulness  in  the  solving  of  the  problems  dis- 
cussed. 

Chart  No.  22 

Will  the  Public  Schools   Cooperate  in  a  Community  Program 
of  Religious  Instruction? 
per  cent        Churches 
Gooo  Cooperation 


60 


20 

Public  Schools 

70 


Fair 
Poor 

No 

Good  Coopertion 

Fair 

Poor 

No 

In  Toledo,  They  Cooperate  Better  Than  the  Churches  Do! 


20 

to 
o 


CHAPTER  VI 


Problems  Involved  in  the  Organization 

and  Administration  of  Week  Day 

Church  Schools 


CHAPTER  VI 

Problems  involved  in  the  organization  and  admin- 
istration of  Week  Day  Church  Schools 

The  week-day  church  school  has  already  demonstrated 
its  adaptability  to  all  sorts  of  circumstances.  During  the 
school  year  of  1919-1920,  nearly  a  score  of  communities 
were  carrying  on  these  schools,  yet  the  plans  in  any  com- 
munity were  in  no  case  exactly  like  those  in  another  com- 
munity. These  schools  are  springing  up  everywhere  the 
present  year,  and  the  number  of  communities  where  they 
are  in  successful  operation  is  already  double  that  of  last 
year.  It  is  safe  to  predict  that  the  next  few  years  will 
witness  a  wonderful  development  of  the  movement.  That 
each  community  should  go  through  a  long  and  expensive 
stage  of  experimentation  before  hitting  upon  the  church- 
school  type  best  fitted  to  its  needs,  is  neither  desirable  nor 
necessary.  Several  communities  have  already  been  through 
such  periods  of  experimentation  and  their  experiences, 
if  made  available,  will  save  much  valuable  time  and 
hard-earned  financial  resources.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this 
chapter  to  give  to  communities,  planning  for  week-day 
religious  instruction,  such  items  of  information  as  may  be 
helpful  to  them  in  their  new  religious  educational  enter- 
prises. The  items  given  are  drawn  from  the  actual  ex- 
periences of  communities  engaged  in  carrying  on  the  work, 
rather  than  from  the  author's  academic  conceptions  as  to 
what  ought  to  be. 

1.  The  securing  of  teachers  for  the  week-day 
church  school.  "Where  shall  we  get  teachers?"  is  pretty 
sure  to  be  one  of  the  first  questions  asked  by  persons  who 
are  becoming  interested  in  the  week-day   church-school 

131 


132        THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

movement.  It  is  probable  that  the  question  grows  out  of 
Sunday-school  experiences.  The  getting  of  teachers  is  a 
bugbear  to  a  good  many  Sunday-school  superintendents. 
Before  attempting  to  answer  this  question  it  may  be  well 
to  consider  a  few  facts  about  the  teaching  force  of  week-day 
schools  already  in  operation.  Of  the  300  teachers  engaged 
in  week-day  religious  instruction  last  year, 

168  were  volunteer  teachers; 

114  were  part-time  paid  teachers; 
18  were  full-time  paid  teachers. 

These  three  types  of  teachers  are  carrying  on  the  in- 
struction in  the  week-day  church  schools.  It  will  be  noted 
that  not  quite  half  of  them  are  paid,  but  the  paid  teachers 
put  in  so  much  more  time  in  the  work  that  considerable 
more  than  half  the  teaching  is  done  by  them.  A  com- 
parison of  the  pupils  enrolled  in  schools  having  volunteer 
teachers  with  the  enrollment  of  schools  having  paid  teach- 
ers shows  that  there  are  over  four  times  as  many  pupils  en- 
rolled in  the  latter  type  of  schools  as  in  the  former  type. 
The  week-day  church-school  movement  is  therefore  largely 
depending  on  paid  instructors  for  its  teaching  force.  Full- 
time paid  teachers  are  employed  almost  exclusively  in 
Gary,  Van  Wert,  Hobart,  Grand  Rapids,  and  Oak  Park. 
Some  of  these  communities  have  a  few  part-time  paid  teach- 
ers but  this  is  only  a  temporary  arrangement.  The  com- 
munities named  seem  to  be  committed  to  a  policy  which 
will  make  the  religious  instruction  of  children  a  life  work 
for  their  week-day  church-school  teachers.  Part-time  paid 
teachers  is  the  rule  in  Toledo,  Evanston,  the  Calumet 
Region  communities,  and  Cuyahoga  Falls.  Some  of  these 
communities,  however,  are  following  the  present  plan  only 
temporarily,  hoping  that  with  the  development  of  their 
week-day  school  systems  they  may  ultimately  make  reli- 
gious instruction  a  possible  life  work  for  their  young  people 
and  their  teachers.     Volunteer  teachers  are  the  rule  in 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION        133 

Batavia,  Northfield,  and  the  week-day  church  schools 
under  the  care  of  the  Protestant  Teachers'  Association  in 
New  York  City. 

It  would  seem  that,  in  general,  the  employment  of  paid, 
and  where  it  is  possible,  of  full-time  teachers,  for  the  week- 
day church  schools  is  the  better  course.  A  higher  stand- 
ard of  preparation  and  of  professional  efficiency  can  usu- 
ally be  secured  if  teachers  are  paid.  This  rule  probably 
does  not  apply,  however,  in  such  cases  as  that  of  the  New 
York  City  schools  just  mentioned. 

The  compensation  offered  full-time  paid  teachers  by  the 
week-day  church  schools  is  approximately  the  same  as  that 
received  by  public-school  teachers  of  corresponding  grade. 
Part-time  paid  teachers  are  usually  offered  from  one  dollar 
and  fifty  cents  to  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per  hour  for 
time  employed  in  classroom  work.  This  rate  is  not  large 
considering  that  the  successful  teacher  must  spend  much 
more  time  in  the  work  than  that  consumed  in  the  recita- 
tion period. 

Communities  carrying  on  week-day  religious  instruction 
have  secured  their  teachers  from  various  sources.  Among 
them  the  following  may  be  mentioned: 

a.  Public-School  Teachers.  In  the  church  schools 
held  before  public  school,  after  public  school,  and  on  Sat- 
urdays, many  public-school  teachers  are  employed.  Their 
training,  their  experience,  and  their  devotion  to  the  welfare 
of  childhood  make  these  public-school  teachers  invaluable 
aids  in  the  educational  undertakings  of  the  Church.  Many 
Jewish  teachers  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York  are 
teaching  in  the  Hebrew  week-day  schools  which  meet  after 
the  close  of  the  public-school  sessions.  The  right  of  a 
public-school  teacher  so  to  use  the  hours  of  the  day  not 
taken  up  with  public-school  duties  ought  not  to  be  ques- 
tioned. The  exercise  of  such  a  right  is  no  infringement 
upon  the  separation  of  Church  and  State. 


134  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

b.  Retired  School-Teachers.  Many  of  the  most  effi- 
cient and  faithful  teachers  in  the  week-day  church  schools 
are  found  among  those  who  have  had  training  for  teach- 
ing in  the  public  schools  and  experience  in  such  work,  but 
have  ceased  to  be  so  employed.  Some  of  these  ex-school- 
teachers are  now  mothers  of  families,  but  where  home 
duties  allow  it,  they  are  often  of  even  greater  service  to  the 
Church  because  they  have  experienced  the  responsibilities 
and  joys  of  motherhood.  Our  larger  cities  commonly  have 
definite  age  limits  for  their  teaching  force — limits  at  which 
all  teachers  are  required  to  retire  from  the  teaching  staff 
of  the  city  schools.  Many  of  these  teachers  are  still  cap- 
able of  valuable  service.  The  week-day  church  schools 
open  to  such  of  these  retired  teachers  as  are  interested  in 
religious  work  a  field  of  fruitful  labor.  There  are  several 
such  retired  public-school  teachers  who  are  engaged  in 
week-day  church-school  work ;  rounding  out  a  life  of  serv- 
ice with  the  noblest  service  of  all,  a  spiritual  ministry  to 
little  children. 

c.  Students  in  Colleges  and  UniversIties.  Church 
schools  in  college  and  university  towns  have  found  efficient 
teachers  for  their  church  schools  among  that  part  of  the 
student  body  preparing  for  educational  and  Church  work. 
Especially  helpful  teachers  are  found  among  the  graduate 
students  in  religious  education  where  colleges  and  univer- 
sities have  graduate  courses  in  this  new  field. 

d.  Church  Assistants,  Settlement  House  Workers, 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Secretaries.  It  sometimes 
happens  that  some  one  on  the  working  staff  of  some  of  the 
organizations  named  is  fitted  for  church-school  teaching, 
and  able  to  give  some  time  to  it.  A  church-school  teach- 
ing force  specially  trained  for  religious  education  as  a  life 
work,  is  the  ideal  toward  which  we  ought  to  move;  but 
under  present  circumstances,  we  must  often  be  satisfied 
with  something  less  than  ideal  arrangements. 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IX  THE  ORGANIZATION        IS5 

e.  Sunday-School  Teachers.  Teachers  who  have 
given  faithful  service  in  the  Sunday  schools  and  have 
caught  the  real  educational  enthusiasm,  and  have  de- 
veloped skill  in  giving  instruction,  are  valuable  aids  to  the 
^eek-day  church-school  movement.  Such  teachers  wel- 
come the  more  ample  time  for  instruction  and  the  helpful 
supervision  which  are  coming  into  being  with  the  week- 
day church  school. 

/.  Young  People  and  Other  Capable  Persons  Who 
•Are  Interested  in  the  Religious  Instruction  of  the 
Young.  A  community  can  do  a  good  deal  toward  train- 
ing its  own  week-day  church-school  teachers.  At  the  time 
this  is  being  written,  a  class  of  over  thirty  people  who  are 
preparing  to  teach  in  week-day  church  schools  of 
Philadelphia  are  meeting  regularly  under  the  instruction 
of  Professor  Yocum  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 

2.  Rooms  and  equipment  for  week-day  church- 
school  classes.  Statistics  as  to  places  of  meeting  are 
available  from  a  hundred  week-day  church-school  centers. 
Of  these  schools 

66  meet  in  churches. 

2  meet  in  settlement  houses. 

16  meet  in  public-school  buildings. 

2  meet  in  rented  halls. 

13  meet  in  parish  houses. 

1  meets  in  a  rectory. 

1  meets  in  a  Y.  W.  C.  A.  building. 

1  meets  in  a  building  erected  and  used  for  week-day  reli- 
gious instruction. 

It  will  be  noted  that  more  than  half  of  the  schools  meet  in 
church  buildings.  The  classes  are  not  usually  held  in  the 
church  auditorium,  but  in  some  smaller  room  where  some 
attempt  has  been  made  to  secure  teaching  conditions.  In 
a  few  cases,  these  church  rooms  are  fairly  satisfactory,  but 
in  many  cases  they  are  poorly  suited  to  classroom  work. 


136        THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

The  necessity  for  using  these  rooms  for  other  purposes  than 
the  church-school  recitations  makes  it  difficult  to  furnish 
them  properly  for  educational  purposes.  Most  church 
buildings  have  been  constructed  with  but  little  thought  of 
the  teaching  function  of  the  Church.  Week-day  church 
schools  with*  only  the  ordinary  church  rooms  as  a  meeting 
place  work^under  a  heavy  handicap.  Every  experienced 
teacher  knows  how  hard  it  is  to  preserve  order  and  give 
efficient  instruction  in  a  room  poorly  fitted  for  recitation 
work. 

The  difficulties  found  in  church  buildings  are  apt  to  exist 
in  an  even  greater  degree  in  settlement  houses,  rented  halls, 
and  other  temporary  school  quarters.  Like  the  churches, 
these  buildings  were  not  constructed  with  educational 
activities-  in  view.  Sometimes  they  can  be  modified  in 
such  a  way  as  to  answer  educational  needs,  after  a  fashion; 
sometimes  their  whole  plan  of  structure  is  so  faulty  that 
an  effective  remodeling  is  out  of  the  question.  In  any  case 
they  are  apt  to  be  makeshifts. 

The  church-school  classes  held  in  public-school  buildings 
have  a  vastly  better  teaching  environment  than  the  church- 
school  classes  held  in  any  of  the  other  buildings  named.  The 
neat  and  comfortable  individual  desk,  the  abundant  win- 
dow space  with  proper  exposure  to  the  sunlight,  the  plenti- 
ful and  properly  placed  blackboard  space,  the  efficient 
ventilation  system,  the  dependable  heating  plant;  all  these 
are  the  product  of  a  good  many  years  of  public-school 
evolution. 

They  have  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  transforma- 
tion of  the  public  schools  from  the  dim  rebellious  prisons 
of  our  grandparents  into  the  sunny  and  delightful  school 
homes  of  our  children.  If  the  church  schools  must  begin 
v.  ith  the  rooms  and  equipment  of  sixty  years  ago,  their 
case  is,  indeed,  unfortunate.  The  better  educational  en- 
vironment of  the  public-school  building  registers  itself  im- 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGAW&TION        137 

mediately  in  the  church-school  elasses  held  in  such  build- 
ings. The  order  is  better,  the  attention  of  the  class  more 
constant,  and  the  interest  more  sustained  than  in  the 
classes  meeting  eleswhere.  And  yet  the  practice  of  hous- 
ing church-school  classes  in  public-school  buildings  is  sub- 
ject to  some  grave  objections.  Even  though  ifent  is  paid 
by  the  church  school  for  the  use  of  the  public-s'cnool  build- 
ing, the  fact  remains  that  such  an  arrangement  is  not  far 
from  the  border  line  which  divides  Church  and  State. 

As  has  been  said,  Gary  has  one  modest  building,  owned 
by  the  Board  of  Religious  Education,  which  was  built  and 
equipped  for  week-day  religious  instruction.  It  is  the 
first  of  its  kind  in  the  country.  It  is  an  inexpensive  struc- 
ture simply  furnished,  yet  in  plan  and  equipment  it  is  up 
to  the  public-school  standard.  It  represents  theadeal  to- 
ward which  we  ought  to  be  moving;  namely,  church-school 
buildings  owned  by  the  Church  and  built  and  equipped  for 
religious  educational  work. 

3.  Time  for  week-day  church-school  classes.  Of 
a  hundred  week-day  church  schools  from  which  informa- 
tion has  been  gathered, 

14  meet  in  the  morning  before  the  opening  of  public- 
school  classes. 

25  meet  in  the  afternoon  after  the  dismissal  of  public- 
school  classes. 

3  meet  on  Saturdays. 

60  meet  during  the  day  while  the  public-school  classes 
are  in  session. 

It  will  be  seen  that  more  than  half  of  the  church  schools 
have  made  arrangements  with  the  public  schools  whereby 
public-school  time  is  secured  for  the  church-school  classes. 
This  is  by  far  the  best  arrangement.  Church-school  classes 
meeting  before  public  school,  and  after  public  school, 
work  under  distinct  disadvantages.  The  former  are  incon- 
veniently early  in  the  day,  the  latter  inconveniently  late. 


138  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

Both  must  invade  the  time  which  children  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  give  to  play  and  home  duties.  The  after-public 
school  classes  come  at  a  time  when  the  pupils  are  tired  by 
the  tasks  of  the  day.  Under  both  arrangements  the  children 
all  come  at  once  or,  at  best,  in  two  groups.  Twice  as 
many  teachers  are  needed  as  is  the  case  when  the  church 
school  can  run  throughout  the  day,  and  the  expenses  for 
seats  and  teaching  materials  are  increased. 

The  public-school  authorities  have  gladly  granted  this 
time  concession  to  the  church  schools  in  several  com- 
munities. It  is  only  right  that  they  should  so  so.  Reli- 
gious education  is  second  to  no  other  in  importance,  and  the 
right  of  churches  to  request  a  part  of  the  child's  school  day 
for  the  inculcating  of  the  religious  and  moral  truths,which 
the  Church  alone  can  give  under  our  system  of  govern- 
ment, cannot  be  logically  denied.  Less  than  a  century  ago 
all  the  school  time  of  children  was  in  the  hands  of  the 
churches.  That  the  small  portion  of  time  needed  for 
religious  education  should  be  restored  to  the  churches  is 
not  an  unreasonable  request.    * 

Extensive  opposition  to  the  plan  of  granting  public- 
school  time  to  the  church-school  classes  is  hardly  to  be  ex- 
pected from  the  abler  educational  leaders  of  our  country. 
Many  of  them  have  long  been  aware  of  a  grave  defect  in 
the  American  educational  system.  Many  have  come  to 
see  that  morality  and  patriotism  cannot  be  rightly  taught 
apart  from  the  development  of  the  religious  faculties. 
This  problem  of  the  time  adjustment  between  the  public 
schools  and  the  church  schools  has  been  considered  by 
legal  experts  in  several  different  states  and  their  decisions 
have  been  uniformly  in  favor  of  the  legality  of  such  ar- 
rangements as  secure  public-school  time  for  church-school 
classes. 

The  following  statement  issued  by  State  Superintendent 
Blair  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  is  typical: 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION        ISA 

The  Stiitc  Superintendent  of  Instruction  commenting  upon  week-day 
religious  instruction  points  out  that  there  is  no  illegality  about  the 
program.  Beyond  the  state  requirement  that  physiology  and  hygiene 
he  taught  every  child,  each  community  is  charged  with  the  responsi- 
bility of  determining  its  own  course  of  study.  State  Superintendent 
Blair  states  that,  there  are  no  definite  hours  of  instruction  required  by 
law.  In  this  also  the  community  fixes  its  own  hours  of  instruction. 
It  has  the  right  of  permitting  children  to  go  to  classes  in  religion,  if 
tiie  parents  so  desire.  The  decision  is  one  for  the  parents  to  make  in 
each  individual  case  after  the  Board  of  Education  has  granted  per- 
mission. 

The  sensible  view  of  the  matter  contained  in  the  above 
statement  has  been  expressed  in  like  form  in  every  state 
where  the  matter  has,  thus  far,  been  up  for  official  decision. 
The  only  possible  exception  is  the  case  of  New  Jersey, 
where  the  matter  is  still  pending. 

Boards  of  Education  in  cities  have,  almost  without  ex- 
ception, taken  kindly  to  the  plan.  Word  has  just  been 
received  that  the  School  Board  of  Kansas  City  has  granted 
the  public-school  pupils  permission  to  be  absent  from 
certain  public-school  periods  that  they  may  receive  reli- 
gious instruction  if  their  parents  so  desire. 

In  Somerville,  New  Jersey,  a  committee  composed  of  a 
Protestant  minister,  a  Roman  Catholic  priest,  and  a  rep- 
resentative of  the  Jewish  synagogue,  waited  upon  the 
School  Board  and  presented  a  petition  for  public-school 
time  to  be  used  in  religious  instruction.  The  minutes  of 
the  Board  state  that  "the  members  of  the  Board  expressed 
themselves  as  favorable  and  voted  unanimously  that  the 
request  be  granted." 

It  is  well  to  remember,  in  this  connection,  that  the  sub- 
jects taught  in  the  church  schools  are,  themselves,  not  de- 
void of  information  and  cultural  value.  It  is  not  a  case  of 
asking  the  public  schools  to  curtail  the  curriculum  of  in- 
struction so  much  as  it  is  a  case  of  asking  a  slight  change 
in  the  subject  matter  of  the  child's  curriculum  of  studies. 
Let  us  say,  for  example,  that  in  order  to  attend  the  church- 


140  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

school  classes,  pupils  will  have  to  miss  a  certain  amount  of 
the  public-school  instruction  in  history,  geography,  and 
English.  A  rightly  planned  and  efficiently  taught  church- 
school  course  would  go  far  toward  compensating  for  any 
cutting  down  of  the  public-school  studies.  A  study  of  the 
history  of  the  Hebrew  people,  or  a  study  of  church  history, 
may  be  as  valuable  to  the  child  as  any  of  the  historical 
courses  of  the  public-school  curriculum.  Considered  with 
regard  to  its  geographical  features,  Palestine  is  a  wonderful 
little  country.  The  great  depression  of  the  Dead  Sea  is 
deeper  than  any  other  on  the  land  surface  of  the  earth. 
The  springs  of  the  Jordan  are  among  the  largest  in  the 
world.  The  climate  varies  from  the  constant  cold  of  the 
Hermon  summits,  where  snow  lies  throughout  the  year,  to 
the  constant  heat  of  the  Jordan  Valley.  The  frigid,  the 
temperate,  and  the  torrid  zone  are  represented  by  charac- 
teristic forms  of  animal  and  vegetable  life.  The  Ethiopian, 
the  Indian,  and  the  Palearctic  life  zones  touch  one  another 
within  the  bounds  of  this  little  country.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  believe  that  an  intensive  study  of  the  geography  of 
Palestine  might  have  as  great  a  value  as  any  of  the  regular 
public-school  courses  in  that  subject.  It  is  difficult  to 
think  of  anything  in  the  public-school  course  as  having  a 
greater  educational  value  than  a  thorough  church-school 
course  on  the  English  Bible.  The  literature  of  the  Bible 
has  been  wrought  into  the  literature  of  all  modern  nations. 
Many  references  in  literature  are  unintelligible  to  one  who 
has  no  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures.  In  bringing  into  the 
American  educational  system  a  thorough  study  of  the 
Bible,  the  church  schools  would  be  filling  a  distinct  want 
long  recognized  by  many  American  educators. 

4.  Courses  of  study  for  week-day  church-school 
classes.  The  selection  of  lesson  materials  for  week-day 
church-school  classes  is  a  matter  of  importance.  The  week- 
day church-school  movement  has  not  been  under  way  long 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION        HI 

enough  to  produce  a  very  abundant  supply  of  lesson  ma- 
terial. Two  denominations,  however,  the  Baptists  and 
the  Presbyterians,  have  gotten  out  week-day  church- 
school  courses  correlated  with  their  Sunday-school  lessons. 
The  Baptist  week-day  course  consists  of  lessons  in  which 
the  regular  Keystone  lessons,  used  in  their  Sunday  schools, 
are  reviewed  and  reemphasized.  The  Presbyterian  week- 
day course,  on  the  other  hand,  introduces  much  additional 
material  not  being  confined  to  a  review  of  the  preceding 
Sunday-school  lesson  and  a  preview  of  the  one  for  the 
next  Sunday.  The  Presbyterian  course  is  correlated  with 
the  Departmental  Graded  Lessons. 

The  Episcopal  Church  has  found  its  Christian  Nurture 
Course  quite  well  suited  for  use  in  week-day  classes,  and 
sufficiently  suggestive  to  furnish  teaching  matter  for  both 
the  Sunday-school  and  the  week-day  classes.  The  Gary 
Leaflets  have  been  developed  during  the  past  three  years 
in  the  week-day  church  schools  of  that  city.  They  con- 
tain much  color  work  for  children,  and  have  proved  quite 
satisfactory  in  a  number  of  schools.  Part  of  the  classes  in 
the  Toledo  week-day  church  schools  of  Toledo  use  "Graded 
Lessons  in  Bible  Study,"  prepared  by  Professor  A.  W. 
Trettien,  Professor  of  Psychology  and  Secondary  Educa- 
tion in  Toledo  University.  Other  classes  use  Burgess'  "Life 
of  Christ"  and  Chamberlain's  "Hebrew  Prophets." 

In  classes  for  older  pupils  it  is  possible  to  introduce  some 
subjects  of  a  general  nature  which  will  be  a  helpful  supple- 
ment to  almost  any  Sunday-school  course.  A  consider- 
able number  of  books  which  might  be  used  for  such  classes 
is  now  available.  Subjects  which  readily  lend  themselves 
to  such  uses  are  Hebrew  History,  Church  History,  Bible 
Geography,  Christian  Missions,  History  of  the  English 
Bible,  The  Bible  in  Art,  and  Christian  Ethics. 

A  close  correlation  of  the  Sunday-school  course,  and  the 
week-day  course  is  highly  desirable  with  the  children  of 


142  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

the  lower  grades,  and  in  week-day  church  schools  where 
the  pupils  in  the  classes  are  practically  all  members  of  the 
Sunday  school  conducted  by  the  church  which  carries  on 
the  week-day  school.  If  the  pupils  of  the  week-day 
school  do  not  attend  any  Sunday  school,  it  is  better  to 
have  a  course  for  them  which  is  in  itself  a  unity. 

5.  Governing  boards  for  week-day  church  schools. 
The  three  types  of  week-day  church  schools  will,  of 
course,  require  different  kinds  of  administrative  organiza- 
tions. In  the  individual  church,  or  denominational  type, 
the  most  successful  plan  seems  to  be  to  bring  all  the  edu- 
cational agencies  of  the  local  church  under  a  governing 
body,  which  is  usually  called  the  Church  Council  of  Reli- 
gious Education.  Most  denominations  now  have  literature 
telling  how  to  organize  such  a  council.  The  Sunday 
school,  week-day  church  school,  young  people's  societies, 
boys'  and  girls'  clubs,  and  all  other  educational  agencies  of 
the  local  church  should  come  under  the  supervision  of  this 
council  which  is  charged  with  the  task  of  bringing  the 
varied  programs  of  these  several  organizations  into  one 
harmonized  and  correlated  plan  for  the  religious  education 
of  the  children  and  youth  to  whom  the  church  ministers. 
In  no  other  way  can  duplication  and  inefficiency  be  elimi- 
nated from  the  educational  activity  of  the  Church.  When 
a  director  of  religious  education  is  employed  by  the 
church  he  becomes  the  executive  officer  of  the  council. 
He  makes  investigations,  reports  to  the  council  his  find- 
ings, confers  with  it,  and  carries  its  plans  into  execution. 

In  the  Denominational  Community  Type  of  week-day 
church  schools,  the  organization  for  each  individual  church 
is  the  same  as  that  just  described.  In  addition  to  these 
councils  in  the  individual  churches,  there  is  usually  an 
organization  which  is  composed  of  representatives  from 
the  individual  churches  and  which  looks  after  the  general 
supervision    of    religious    education    in    the    community. 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION        143 

There  are  a  great  many  reasons  why  this  Community 
Council  should  exist  in  this  type  of  schools.  Better 
arrangements  for  time  adjustments  with  the  public  schools 
can  usually  be  secured  if  there  is  a  definite  organization 
to  push  such  matters  and  present  a  united  appeal.  Such 
a  Community  Council  should  organize,  whenever  possible, 
a  Community  Training  School.  The  training  of  teachers 
for  the  educational  agencies  of  the  Church  is  in  nearly  all 
cases,  a  task  too  difficult  for  an  individual  church.  It  can 
be  efficiently  done  by  interchurch  cooperation.  There  are 
many  things  which  the  churches  of  a  community  should  do 
together,  even  though  each  church  retains  entire  control 
of  its  own  week-day  religious  instruction.  Among  the 
activities  which  offer  an  opportunity  for  interchurch  co- 
operation in  the  community  are  community  singing,  com- 
munity Christmas  trees,  union  picnics,  conferences  of  vari- 
ous sorts,  and  social-service  undertakings  of  many  kinds. 

The  organization  of  this  Community  Council  can  be  de- 
termined best  by  the  people  of  the  various  communities. 
Each  congregation  is  represented  on  it,  usually  by  its  pas- 
tor, Sunday-school  superintendent,  and  often  by  others 
chosen  by  the  various  congregations  cooperating  in  the 
plan. 

In  that  week-day  church-school  type  which  has  been 
called  the  Interdenominational  Community  Type,  the 
Community  Council  is  given  larger  responsibilities  than 
in  the  type  just  considered.  The  general  supervision  and 
administration  of  the  schools  are  in  its  hands.  The  coun- 
cil in  this  type  of  schools  employs  the  teachers,  determines 
the  course  of  study,  decides  as  to  where  the  schools  shall 
be  located,  raises  the  finances  for  their  support,  provides 
housing  and  equipment,  and  has  general  supervision  of  the 
instruction  through  the  superintendent  whom  it  employs 
and  from  it  receives  reports.  In  a  few  cases,  such  as  that 
of  New  York  City,  there  is  an  organization  which  is  called 


144  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

the  Interdenominational  Board  or  Council  of  Religious 
Education,  or  which  bears  some  similar  title,  and  which  is 
made  up  of  representatives  from  the  Protestant  churches, 
Roman  Catholic  churches,  and  Jewish  synagogues.  It  is 
quite  eviaent  that  a  board  so  constituted  could  hardly 
expect  to  discharge  the  functions  which  have  just  been 
named.^jlw  communities  having  a  board  of  this  kind  the 
wise  pl^yS/ould  seem  to  be  to  hand  over  the  conduct  of 
the  weaHHay  church  schools  to  a  subcommittee  composed 
of  people  holding  the  particular  form  of  religious  faith 
which  the  schools  are  planned  to  teach;  and  this  is  the  plan 
generally  followed. 

The  body,  having  the  oversight  of  the  week-day  church 
schools,  of  ihe  type  now  being  considered,  varies  consider- 
ably as  "tor-its  plan  of  organization  in  the  different  com- 
munities and  is  called  by  several  different  names.  In 
Toledo  the  governing  body  is  a  committee  of  the  Toledo 
Church  Federation.  In  Gary  the  governing  body  is  called 
the  Board  of  Religious  Education,  and  the  smaller  execu- 
tive body  appointed  by  this  larger  body  is  called  the  Ex- 
ecutive Committee.  In  Evanston  and  the  Calumet 
Region  the  larger  governing  body  is  called  the  Council  of 
Religious  Education,  the  smaller  body,  the  Board  of  Re- 
ligious Education.  This  twofold  arrangement  of  a  larger 
representative  board  or  council  and  a  smaller  executive 
body  appointed  from  the  larger,  is  a  common  arrangement, 
and  doubtless  serves  a  useful  purpose.  The  larger  body 
brings  into  the  movement  a  large  constituency,  thus  creat- 
ing a  wide  sense  of  responsibility  and  a  broad  interest. 
The  smaller  body,  to  which  most  of  the  work  of  organizing 
and  conducting  the  schools  is  committed,  makes  for 
efficiency. 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  go  into  details  as  to  the  organ- 
ization of  these  governing  bodies  in  every  community. 
The  plan  adopted  at  Gary  is  typical  and  can  be  modified 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION        145 

to  suit  local  conditions.  In  Gary  the  larger  governing 
body,  called  the  Board  of  Religious  Education  is  made  up 
of  four  representatives  from  each  cooperating  congrega- 
tion. The  pastor  and  the  superintendent  of  the  Sunday 
school  are  ex-officio  members  of  the  Board.  Two  other 
members  are  chosen  by  each  congregation  in  such  a  way  as 
it  may  deem  best.  The  Board  of  Religious  Education 
elects  from  its  membership  an  Executive  Committee  to 
which  much  of  the  work  of  administering  and  supervising 
the  schools  is  intrusted.  The  Board  meets  once  every 
three  months;  the  Executive  Committee  once  a  month. 
The  Executive  Committee  employs  the  superintendent  of 
the  church  schools  and  elects  the  teachers  nominated  by 
this  superintendent.  Various  subcommittees  look  after 
such  matters  as  finances,  courses  of  study,  buildings  and 
equipment,  and  the  location  of  new  schools. 

The  schools  in  the  Calumet  region,  Evanston,  Oak  Park, 
and  Northfield  are  under  the  advisory  supervision  of  edu- 
cational institutions  located  in,  or  near,  the  communities 
named.  This  same  sort  of  supervision  is  a  feature  of  the 
week-day  church-school  plans  just  now  being  launched  in 
Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  Chicago.  It  is  an  encouraging 
sign  that  the  greatest  and  most  progressive  universities  of 
our  land  are  giving  serious  attention  to  religious  educa- 
tion.    Their  aid  is  proving  invaluable  in  the  cities  name. 

6.  Financing  the  week-day  church  schools.  The 
cost  of  week-day  religious  instruction  varies  from  almost 
nothing,  in  some  of  the  local  church  schools  with  volunteer 
teachers,  up  to  about  ten  dollars  a  year  for  each  pupil 
in  some  of  the  schools  where  all  the  instruction  is  given  by 
paid  teachers  and  trained  supervisors  give  full  time  to  the 
work.  As  the  schools  grow  in  attendance  the  cost  is  com- 
paratively less.  The  work  is  now  well  organized  and 
firmly  established  in  Gary,  and  the  annual  cost  per  pupil 
is  a  little  less  than  five  dollars.    In  schools  of  the  Individual 


146  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

Church  Type,  by  far  the  best  plan  for  financing  the  schools 
is  to  place  their  necessary  expenditures  in  the  regular 
church  budget.  In  the  schools  under  the  Denominational 
Community  Type  the  same  method  should  be  used  to 
finance  each  local  school,  but  a  small  budget  ought  to  be 
provided  for  the  use  of  the  interdenominational  board 
which  has  general  oversight  of  the  religious  educational 
interests  of  the  community.  If  this  board  is  to  undertake 
a  Community  Training  School  or  other  like  enterprise, 
its  budget  will  have  to  be  larger. 

When  the  schools  are  under  interdenominational  control 
the  raising  of  the  necessary  funds  for  the  support  of  the 
schools  devolves  upon  the  interdenominational  board  or 
council.  In  Gary,  a  budget  of  approximately  twelve 
thousand  dollars  was  raised  last  year  from  various 
sources  as  indicated  below: 

Cash  on  hand  at  beginning  of  year $  95 .  38 

Cash  from  Building  Fund 800 .  00 

S.  S.  Board  of  M.  E.  Church 1500.00 

S.  S.  Board  of  Pres.  Church 1500.00 

Am.  Christian  Miss. Society 900.00 

United  Pres.  Home  Mission  Board 300 .  00 

Congregational  Education  Board 250.00 

Reformed  Church  Mission  Board 300 . 00 

First  Pres.  Church,  Gary 120 . 00 

Central  Christian  Church,  Gary 180.00 

Gary  Neighborhood  House  (Pres.) 180 .  00 

Westminster  Pres.  Church,  Gary 75.00 

Glen  Park  Christian  Ch.  Garv 75 .00 

Graee  M.  E.  Church,  Gary 75 .  00 

Ambridge  Community  Church  (M.  E.)  Gary 75 .00 

First  M.  E.  Church,  Gary 158.00 

Local  Subscriptions 2683 .  44 

Illinois  Steel  Co 1500.00 

Other  Sources 992.34 

Total  $11,759.16 

As  indicated  in  the  above,  the  sources  of  income  for  the 
Gary  church  schools  are  (1)  denominational  boards,  (2) 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION        147 

private  subscriptions,  (3)  corporation  subscriptions,  (4) 
church  subscriptions.  There  is  nothing  unusual  in  the 
fact  that  the  enterprise  was  helped  materially  by  denomi- 
national boards,  since  Gary  is  a  home  mission  field,  with  a 
very  large  foreign  population,  and  only  two  or  three  self- 
supporting  churches. 

In  Toledo,  funds  for  the  maintenance  of  the  week-day 
church  schools  were  raised  in  a  joint  campaign  with  the 
State  Sunday  School  Association. 

None  of  the  communities  has  apparently  made  any 
charge  to  the  pupils  for  tuition.  It  would  seem  that  here 
is  a  field  which  ought  to  receive  investigation.  A  large 
part  of  the  funds  for  carrying  on  the  extensive  week-day 
educational  enterprises  of  the  Jews  in  New  York  City,  is 
raised  through  charges  for  tuition.  Their  theory  is  that 
the  available  charitable  funds  of  the  community  ought  to 
be  used  to  educate  the  children  whose  parents  are  not 
financially  able  to  pay  for  the  schooling  of  their  children, 
not  to  pay  for  the  schooling  of  children  whose  parents  are 
abundantly  able  to  pay  such  tuition  charges  out  of  their 
own  funds.  It  is  not  a  bad  idea,  either;  and  Protestants 
ought  lO  see  if  they  cannot  come  to  some  such  standard 
when  their  week-day  church  schools  are  a  little  better 
established. 

7.  Books  and  materials  for  the  week-day  church 
schools. 

(1)  Books  which  will  be  found  helpful  to  the  Primary  teacher. 

Songbooks:  "Carols";  "The  Primary  and  Junior  Hymnal" ;  "Songs 

for  Little  People." 
"Children's  Missionary  Story  Sermons,"  Kerr. 
"All  About  the  Primary,"  Sudlow. 
"The  Primary  Department,"  Curtiss. 
"Other  People's  Children,"  Sebach. 
"Child  Nature  and  Child  Nurture,"  St.  John. 
"Stories  and  Story  Telling."  St.  John. 
"The  Sunday  School  Hour,"  Cragin. 
"How  to  Tell  Stories  to  Children,"  Bryant. 
"The  Secret  of  a  Happy  Day,"  Chapman. 


148  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

"The  Song  of  our  Syrian  Guest,"  Knight. 

"Handwork  in  Religious  Education,"  Wardle. 

"The  Blackboard  Class  for  Sunday-School  Teachers,"  Darnell. 

"The  Sand  Table,"  Lfflie  A.  Faris. 

"Three  Hundred  Primary  Object  Lessons,"  Cook. 

"The  Dramatization  of  Bible  Stories,"  Miller. 

"Plans  and  Programs,"  Williams. 

"Sand-Table  Work  in  the  Bible  School,"  Auld. 

(2)  Books  which  will  be  found  helpful  to  the  Junior  teacher. 
"The  Juniors;  How  to  Teach  and  Train  Them,"  Baldwin. 
"Children's  Devotions,"  Verkuyl. 

"Training  the  Devotional  Life,"  Weigle  and  Tweedy. 

"Pictures  in  Religious  Education,"  Beard. 

"How  to  Teach  Religion,"  Betts. 

"Dr.  Grenfell's  Parish,"  Duncan. 

"The  Unfolding  Life,"  Lamoreaux. 

"Things  to  Make,"  Hutton. 

"Winning  the  Oregon  Country,"  Faris. 

(3)  Books  which  will  be  found  helpful  to  the  Intermediate  teacher. 
"The  Intermediate  Department,"  Foster. 

"Problems  of  Intermediate  and  Senior  Teachers,"  Foster. 
"The  Religious  Education  of  Adolescents,"  Richardson. 
"Studies  in  Adolescent  Boyhood,"  Burr. 
"The  Girl  in  her  Teens,"  Slattery. 
"The  Boy  Problem,"  Forbush. 
"Boy  Life  and  Self-Government,"  Fiske. 
"Representative  Men  of  the  Bible,"  Matheson. 
"Representative  Women  of  the  Bible,"  Matheson. 
"Life  of  Christ,"  Burgess. 

(4)  Books  which  will  be  found  useful  for  the  higher  classes  or  for  the 
teacher's  use. 

"The  Meaning  of  Prayer,"  Fosdick. 

"The  Manhood  of  the  Master,"  Fosdick. 

"Prayer,  Its  Nature  and  Scope,"  Trumbull. 

"With  Christ  in  the  School  of  Prayer,"  Murray. 

"Expositor's  Bible." 

"Heroes  and  Crises  of  Early  Hebrew  History,"  Kent. 

"Kings  and  Prophets  of  Israel  and  Judah,"  Kent. 

"Makers  and  Teachers  of  Judaism,"  Kent. 

"Historical  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land,"  Smith. 

"Davis  Bible  Dictionary." 

"Cambridge  Bible." 

"Modern  Reader's  Bible,"  Moulton. 

"Girlhood  and  Character,"  Moxcey. 

"Religious  Education  in  the  Family,"  Cope. 

"How  we  Got  Our  Bible,"  Smythe. 

"Religions  of  the  World,"  Barton. 

"From  Youth  to  Manhood,"  Hall. 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION        149 

The  following  articles  will  be  needed  for  handwork  in 
the  various  departments  of  the  week-day  church  school: 
hook  covers,  paper,  pencils,  crayons,  erasers,  scissors, 
rulers,  plasticine  or  modeling  clay,  hectograph,  pictures, 
maps,  paste,  water  colors,  various  kinds  of  "stickers." 
Most  of  these  things  can  be  secured  from  stationery  stores, 
school  supply  houses,  or  denominational  book  stores. 

8.  Week-day  church-school  records  and  reports. 
Sunday-school  records  have  usually  been  very  poorly 
kept.  This  is  unfortunate  for  the  records  of  the  church 
constitute  its  system  of  bookkeeping  and  good  bookkeeping 
is  quite  as  essential  to  the  success  of  the  church  as  it  is  to  a 
business  enterprise.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  all  week-day 
church  schools  will  make  careful  and  extensive  records 
and  preserve  them  for  future  reference.  Many  Sunday 
schools  have  followed  the  custom  of  consigning  all  records, 
at  the  end  of  the  year,  to  the  furnace  fires  in  the  church 
basement.  The  records  of  the  educational  activities  of 
the  church  ought  to  possess  a  value  above  their  fuel  value. 

The  following  items  of  information  ought  to  be  gathered 
from  each  pupil,  put  on  permanent  record,  and  kept 
convenient  for  reference: 

(1)  Full  name  of  pupil. 

(2)  Date  of  birth. 

(3)  Place  of  birth. 

(4)  Name  of  father. 

(5)  Name  of  mother. 

(6)  Number  of  brothers  and  sisters. 

(7)  Foreign  born  or  native : 

(a)  child. 
(6)  father. 
(c)  mother. 

(8)  Residence. 

(9)  Employed  or  in  school. 
(10)  Member  of  Sunday  school. 


150  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

(11)  Member  of  Church. 

(12)  Grade  in  public  school. 

(13)  Church  of  parents. 

(14)  Absence. 

(15)  Tardiness. 

(16)  Date  of  entering  class. 

(17)  Date  of  leaving  class. 

(18)  Date  of  promotion. 

(19)  Attendance  at  other  religious  educational  schools. 
If  statistics  are  carefully  gathered  and  analyzed,  they 

will  be  found  to  be  invaluable  indications  of  the  progress 
of  the  schools.  When  charted  and  exhibited  these  statis- 
tics bring  the  facts  concerning  the  school  home  to  the 
people  of  the  community  with  a  force  that  can  hardly  be 
equaled  by  any  other  method. 

9.  Grading  the  week-day  church  school.  In 
general,  the  public-school  grading  is  adhered  to  in  the 
schools  for  week-day  religious  instruction.  In  a  few  of  the 
schools  of  the  Individual  Church  Type,  where  the  con- 
nection between  week-day  church  school  and  Sunday 
school  is  close,  the  grading  is  that  of  the  Sunday  school. 
Such  a  conformity  of  the  week-day  church  school  to  the 
Sunday-school  classifications  makes  no  great  difference, 
however,  in  practice,  because  the  Sunday-school  grading 
is  usually  approximately  parallel  to  that  of  the  public 
school.  In  Gary  and  a  number  of  other  places  two  public- 
school  grades  recite  together  in  the  church  school.  Grades 
one  and  two,  of  the  public  school  constitute  Group  One 
in  the  church  school;  grades  three  and  four  of  the  public 
school,  constitute  Group  Two  of  the  church  school  and  so 
on.  In  Gary  the  church  schools  are  in  session  on  every 
school  day  of  the  week  with  the  exception  of  Wednesday 
and  run  throughout  the  day.  In  Batavia  the  church- 
school  classes  meet  only  on  Thursday.  In  Evanston  the 
church-school   classes   meet   before   public   school   every 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION        151 

school  day.  In  Cuyahoga  Falls  the  church-school  classes 
meet  on  Wednesday  afternoons.  Many  week-day  church 
schools  have  no  adjustments  as  to  time  with  the  public 
schools,  their  classes  all  being  held  in  out-of-public-school 
hours. 

10.  Recruiting  pupils  for  the  week-day  church 
school.  When  satisfactory  arrangements  have  been  made 
as  to  the  governing  board,  the  place  of  meeting,  the  time 
for  classes,  the  equipment  of  rooms,  the  course  of  the  study, 
and  the  teaching  force,  one  element  is  still  lacking  before 
you  have  a  school.  You  must  have  pupils.  Most  church 
schools  that  have,  in  any  measure,  secured  the  items  listed, 
have  had  an  easy  task  to  get  pupils.  Indeed,  their  prob- 
lem has  been  how  to  take  care  of  the  children  they  have 
rather  than  how  to  get  more.  At  the  start,  however,  some 
advertising  may  be  advisable.  This  can  always  be  done 
through  the  Sunday  school,  and  in  some  cases  it  has  been 
allowed  in  public  school.  Attractive  cards  outlining 
courses  will  interest  high-school  pupils.  Handwork  exhib- 
ited in  some  public  place  will  attract  the  younger  pupils. 
Handbills  and  posters  are  useful.  A  committee  to  follow 
up  every  child  which  the  school  can  rightfully  claim,  will 
be  a  great  help  in  getting  in  all  the  children.  In  a  number 
of  cases,  vacation  Bible  schools  have  grown  into  week-day 
church  schools  through  the  continuation  courses  they  set 
up.  This  method  of  beginning  the  week-day  church 
school  is  worthy  of  consideration. 

It  is  well  to  keep  the  press  of  the  community  informed  as 
to  the  purposes  and  progress  of  the  week-day  church-school 
movement.  The  right  kind  of  publicity  is  a  great  help  in 
recruiting  for  the  schools.  The  printing  of  invitation  and 
registration  cards  and  the  circulation  of  them  among  the 
children  and  their  parents  is,  in  itself,  a  good  advertisment 
of  the  schools.  A  few  cards  which  have  been  used  in  this 
way  are  given  in  this  chapter. 


152  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 


For  Teacher  of  W.  D.  B.  S. 

ENROLLMENT  FOR  WEEK-DAY  BIBLE  SCHOOL 

Toledo,  Ohio, 19 

Name  of  pupil . 

Address 


Telephone  number 

Public  school  attended 

(trade  of  pupil  in  public  school  

Sunday  school  or  church  attended 

Street  number  of  Sunday  school  or  church 
Denomination  of  above 


Has  the  pupil  taken  the  W.  D.  B.  S.  before? If  so,  where? 

Time  of  Bible  class         . . 


.Parent 


For  Superintendent  of  W.  D.  B.  S. 

ENROLLMENT  FOR  WEEK-DAY  BIBLE  SCHOOL 

Toledo,  Ohio, .19_ 

Name  of  pupil . 

Address .. 

Telephone  number . 

Public  school  attended 

Grade  of  pupil  in  public  school 

Sunday  school  or  church  attended 

Street  No.  of  Sunday  school  or  church __ 

Denomination  of  above 


Has  the  pupil  taken  the  W.  D.  B.  S.  before? If  so,  where?  . 

Time  of  Bible  class . 


_.Parent 


REQUEST  FOR  DISMISSAL 

To  the  Principal  of School: 

In  accordance  with  a  resolution  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Education 

June  5,  1916,  you  are  hereby  courteously  requested  to  dismiss 

from  school,  each 

at  2.15  p.  m.,  that may  receive  religious 

instruction  at  this  hour. 

When  such  instruction  ceases  to  be  given,  proper  notice  will  be  given 
you  that  this  dismissal  privilege  may  be  withdrawn.  Such  notice  will 
l>e  sent  you  either  by  the  teacher  who  gives  the  religious  instruction  or 
by  myself. 

Parent. 

Cards  Used  in  the  Week-Day  Church  Schools  of  Toledo,  Ohio 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION 


153 


INTERCHURCH  FEDERATION  OF  TOLEDO 
DEPARTMENT  OF  WEEK-DAY  BIBLE  STUDY 

This  certifies  that 


was  a  member  of  the  Week-Day  Bible  Class 

School  center,  Toledo,  from 

and  studied  lessons, _to — 


to 


text,  and  by  reason  of  attendance,  attention,  and  achievement,  is  en- 
titled to      high     credit  for  the  above, 
medium 

CM.  BRUNSON  . 

Superintendent  Teacher 


Credit  Card  Used  in  Toledo,  Ohio,  Week-Dav  Church  Schools 


Name. 


COMMUNITY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

REPORT  CARD 

Grade  _ 


Date  of  entrance 


Times  absent 
Times  tardy _ 
Deportment  _ 


Memory  work . 
Handwork 


Jan.  I  Feb.    March  April  :   May 


Please  sign  and 
return 


Jan. 
Feb. 


March 


_     April 
_     Ma  v. 


TO  THE  PARENTS 

The  church  school  is  a  phase  of  religious  training  which  has  grown 
into  a  nation-wide  movement  to  train  children  adequately  in  devotion 
to  righteousness. 

We  ask  your  cooperation  in  keeping  the  attendance  regular. 
THE  CHURCH  SCHOOL  BOARD 

Bertha  M.  Morse,  Teacher 


Report  Card  I'sed  in  Week-Day  Church  Schools  of  Hobart,  Indiana 


154 


THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 


- 

to 

to 

3 

- 

B 

te 

3 

FT 

~ 

OS 
>-> 

<e 

3 

- 

te 

WEEK-DAY  RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION 
REGISTRATION  CARD 


Name . 


Age. 


Address . 

Religion 


Nationality 
Day  School 


.Grade 


M 

J* 

<X 

«5 

1—1 

»> 

JS 



4-> 

■* 

1—1 

| 

»> 

-C 



*J 

M 

— 

5th  wk  I  6th  wk  |  7th  wk 
1    1   2      1    |   2      1    |    i 


8th  wk     9th  wk    10th  wk  11th  wk  1 12th  wk 
1    I    2      1    I    2      1    I    2  |  1    I    2      1    I    2 


Registration  and  Record  Card  LTsed  in  the  Week-Day  Church  Schools 
of  Indiana  Harbor,  Indiana 


WEEK-DAY  BIBLE  STUDY 

Pupil's  Name 

Street  Address 

Classes  for  week-day  religious  instruction  will  be  offered  again  this 

year  for  the  benefit  of  the  pupils  of  the  public  schools. 

The  necessary  money  to  carry  forward  this  work  has  been  secured, 

and  pupils  may  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  for  Bible  instruction 

whether  their  parents  are  contributors  or  not. 

No  pupil  will  be  allowed  to  elect  this  study  without  the  return   of 

this  card,  signed  by  the  parent. 

Parent's  signature 

Church  parent  attends 

Sunday  school  pupil  attends . 

Public-school  ward 

Public-school  grade   

Age  of  pupil 


Card  Used  in  Week-Day  Church  Schools  of  Van  Wert,  Ohio 


PROBLEMS  INVOLVED  IN  THE  ORGANIZATION  155 


In  accordance  with  a  resolution  of  the  Kansas  City  Board  of  Edu- 
cation, adopted  December  2,  1920,  you  are  hereby  courteously  re- 
quested to  dismiss: 


from  school,  each_ 


at  3.15  p.  m.,  for  religious  instruction  at  this  hour. 

Signed  

(Parent  or  Guardian) 

Address 

"Your  petition  presented  to  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  this  School  District  on  the  2nd  inst.,  requesting  that 
pupils  in  the  several  schools  of  this  city  be  excused  two 
periods  per  week  for  religious  instruction  in  their  re- 
spective churches,  was  granted  with  the  request  that  a 
report  be  made  to  the  Board  from  time  to  time  as  to  re- 
sults of  this  work,  and  that  a  check  be  made  by  the  Super- 
intendent's Department  as  to  whether  pupils  so  excused 
take  such  instruction." 

J.  B.  JACKSON, 

Secretary  of  Board  of  Directors, 
Kansas  City  School  District. 


Parents'  Request  for  the  Dismissal  of  a  Child,  Used  in  Kansas  City 
Week-Day  Church  Schools 


TO  THE  PARENTS: 

If  you  wish  your  child  to  receive  two  hours  a  week,  free,  unde- 
nominational training  in  the  Bible  and  the  high  standards  which  the 
Bible  teaches,  sign  your  name  below  and  return  this  card  to  Miss  Morse. 

Parent's  signature 

Pupil's  name 


Card  Used  in  Week-Day  Church  Schools  of  Hobart,  Indiana 


156  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

THE  UNION  CHURCH  OF  BAY  RIDGE  Registration  Blank 

Week-Day  School  of  Religion 

Applicant's  name  in  full Date . — . — 

Address ; . 

Birthday . 

Grade  in  day  school Name  of  school 

Father's  name Occupation  

Mother's  name Phone 

What  church  they  attend? . 


PARENTS  (1)  SIGNATURE  REQUIRED. 

Recognizing  the  value  and  privilege  of  this  further  opportunity  for 
religious  training  and  moral  development  that  this  school  offers  through 
its  regular  Wednesday  afternoon  instruction 

I  promise  to  cooperate  by  promoting  regular  and  prompt  attendance 
on  the  part  of  my  child;  by  sending  written  excuses  if  obliged  to  be 
absent;  by  assisting  in  such  small  home  work,  largely  memory  verses, 
as  is  required;  by  furnishing  that  background  in  the  home  life  which  is 
so  essential  for  the  pupil's  religious  growth. 

Signed . _ 

Application  Card  Used  in  Week-Day  Church  School  in  Brooklyn 


CHAPTER  VII 


Sources  of  Information  Concerning 
Week  Day  Church  Schools 


CHAPTER  VII 

Sources  of  Information  Concerning  Week  Day 
Church  Schools 

Before  a  community  or  an  individual  church  undertakes 
to  organize  week-day  religious  instruction,  information 
should  be  gathered  with  care  from  all  available  sources. 
The  problems  connected  with  such  an  undertaking  are 
many  and  serious.  A  satisfactory  course  of  study  suited 
to  all  the  local  needs  is  not  always  readily  obtainable. 
There  is  always  the  problem  of  financing  the  enterprise. 
If  many  churches  and  communities  rush  into  the  move- 
ment without  adequate  preparation,  they  are  apt  to  find 
themselves  in  serious  difficulties  within  a  few  weeks,  and 
the  whole  movement  may  thus  be  brought  into  a  state  of 
reaction  and  delay. 

The  week-day  church-school  movement  presents  oppor- 
tunities for  the  trying  of  new  religious  educational  meth- 
ods, but  it  ought  not  to  become  a  free-for-all  forum  where 
all  sorts  of  projects  are  put  into  operation.  All  who  have 
any  part  in  starting  these  schools  should  remember  that 
the  experience  of  their  predecessors  in  the  movement  is 
invaluable.  It  is  recommended  that  before  organizing 
week-day  church  schools,  correspondence  be  carried  on 
with  several  communities  where  this  type  of  religious  edu- 
cation has  been  successfully  established.  It  would  be 
better  still  if  a  committee  could  visit  some  such  com- 
munity and  see  the  schools  in  actual  operation.  Certain 
methods  of  conducting  these  schools  have  been  tried  re- 
peatedly and  failed  in  every  case;  yet  one  hears,  every  now 
and  then,  of  some  community  starting  out  in  the  same  old 
way.     Certain  other  methods  have  been  uniformly  suc- 

159 


160  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

cessful;  new  week-day  church-school  enterprises  would  do 
well  to  begin  with  these. 

In  view  of  the  above  facts,  it  has  seemed  well  to  close 
this  book  with  a  few  suggestions  as  to  where  further  infor- 
mation can  be  secured  regarding  week-day  religious  in- 
struction. An  earnest  effort  has  been  made  to  gather  as 
much  information  into  this  little  book  as  possible,  but  the 
size  of  the  volume,  which  it  seemed  advisable  to  publish  at 
this  time,  has  set  definite  limits  as  to  subject  matter;  more- 
over, in  the  present  state  of  the  week-day  church-school 
movement  no  book  can  consistently  lay  claim  to  posses- 
sing all  that  needs  to  be  said  on  the  matter.  So  long  as 
the  movement  is  growing  as  it  is,  the  only  safe  method  is 
to  supplement  the  information  gathered  through  reading 
by  correspondence  with  the  communities  where  the  work 
is  being  done  or  by  personal  observation  of  the  same. 

I.  Agencies 

1.  Denominational  Boards.  Several  of  the  larger 
denominations  have  given  this  new  type  of  religious  edu- 
cation serious  attention.  Through  their  educational 
Boards  they  offer  a  threefold  service  to  churches  and  com- 
munities desiring  to  start  week-day  church  schools.  First 
of  all  they  offer  a  service  of  information.  They  have 
printed  bulletins  dealing  with  the  various  types  of  week- 
day church  schools  and  the  problems  involved  in  the  or- 
ganization of  week-day  religious  education.  They  carry  on 
correspondence  with  centers  in  which  these  schools  are  in 
operation,  send  their  representatives  to  visit  them,  and 
thus  collect  information  to  give  out  to  the  churches.  In 
the  second  place  they  offer  a  service  of  lesson  materials. 
Several  denominational  Boards  have  week-day  church- 
school  lessons,  correlated  with  the  regular  Sunday- 
school  lessons  of  the  denomination.  In  the  third  place 
they  offer  a  service  of  expert  advice.     Representatives 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION  161 

of  these  Boards  correspond  with  churches  and  communities 
desiring  to  start  week-day  church  schools  and  when  pos- 
sible visit  them  and  help  in  the  organization  of  the  work. 
The  first  thing  that  any  church  should  do,  if  it  contem- 
plates the  organization  of  these  schools,  would  seem  to  be 
to  get  into  communication  with  the  Board  of  its  denomina- 
tion having  supervision  of  this  type  of  educational  work. 
Where  a  community  plan  of  church  schools  is  contem- 
plated, it  would  seem  wise  to  correspond  with  the  Boards 
of  all  denominations  uniting  in  the  undertaking.  Follow- 
ing is  a  list  of  denominational  Boards  which  have  made 
provision  for  serving  their  churches  in  the  matter  of  week- 
day religious  education: 

Baptist  (Northern),  Rev.  T.  S.  Young,  1701  Chestnut 
Street,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania. 

Presbyterian  (U.  S.  A.)  Rev.  W.  A.  Squires,  Witherspoon 
Building,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania. 

Methodist  Episcopal,  Rev.  J.  V.  Thompson,  58  East 
Washington  Street,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

Episcopal,  Mr.  Edward  Sargent,  389  Fourth  Avenue, 
New  York,  New  York. 

Congregational,  Mrs.  Millicent  P.  Yarrow,  Congrega- 
tional House,  Boston,  Massachusetts. 

Reformed  (U.  S.)  Rev.  C.  A.  Hauser,  Reformed  Church 
Building,  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania. 

2.  Interdenominational  organizations.  Several 
interdenominational  organizations  have  taken  a  keen 
interest  in  week-day  religious  education  and  have  gathered 
and  distributed  a  considerable  amount  of  information  on 
the  matter.  Among  them  ought  to  be  named  the  follow- 
ing: 

The  Religious  Education  Association,  1440  East  57th 
Street,  Chicago,  Illinois.  This  organization  publishes  the 
magazine,  Religious  Education,  and  has  printed  several 
hundred  pages  on  the  subject  of  week-day  religious  in- 


162  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

struction.  Some  of  this  matter  has  appeared  in  the  ma- 
gazine named,  some  of  it  in  pamphlet  form. 

The  Interdenominational  Committee  on  Week-Day 
Religious  Instruction,  Mrs.  H.  W.  Farrington,  Secretary, 
615  West  138th  Street,  New  York,  New  York.  This 
organization  is  seeking  to  secure  city-wide  cooperation  of 
Protestants,  Roman  Catholics,  and  Jews  in  week-day 
church  schools  maintained  by  these  religious  types.  The 
experience  of  this  committee  ought  to  be  valuable  to  other 
great  cities  when  they  begin  to  grapple  with  the  problem 
of  providing  adequate  religious  instruction  for  all  their 
children  and  youth. 

The  International  Sunday  School  Association,  5  North 
Wabash  Ave.,  Chicago,  Illinois.  This  organization  has  a 
committee  charged  with  responsibility  for  the  study  of 
week-day  religious  education  and  the  promoting  of  week- 
day church  schools. 

The  Sunday  School  Council  of  Evangelical  Denomina- 
tions. This  body  has  recently  organized  a  committee  on 
week-day  religious  education,  of  which  Dr.  Norman  E. 
Richardson,  Evanston,  Illinois,  is  secretary. 

These  four  organizations  should  be  consulted,  especially 
in  cases  where  the  week-day  church  schools  are  to  be 
organized  on  an  interdenominational  basis. 

II.  Literature 

Pamphlets  published  by  the  Religious  Education 
Association. 

"Week-Day  Religious  Schools,"  Henry  F.  Cope,  (In 
preparation.) 

"Week-Day  Religious  Instruction,"  Bulletin  No.  14, 
(American  Baptist  Publication  Society) . 

"The  Gary  Plan  of  Church  Schools,"  (Presbyterian 
Board). 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION  163 

"Week-Day  Religions  Instruction,"  (Northwestern  Uni- 
versity). 

"The  Progress  of  Week-Day  Religious  Instruction," 
(Chicago  Church  Federation). 

"Week-Day  Religious  Instruction  as  Conducted  at 
Gary,  Indiana."     (Methodist  Sunday  School  Board). 

"Two  Types  of  Week-Day  Church  Schools,"  (Presby- 
terian Board). 

"The  Van  Wert  Plan,"  (Van  Wert  Board  of  Religious 
Education). 

"The  Toledo  Plan,"  (Committee  of  Toledo  Church 
Federation). 

"Week-Day  Religious  Instruction,"  R.  W.  Miller. 
(Reformed  Church  Board). 

"Religious  Education  in  the  Public  Schools,"  G.  U. 
Wenner,  (New  York  City). 

"The  Abingdon  Bulletins,"  (Abingdon  Press). 

"The  Educational  Work  of  the  Church,"  Bulletin  No.  1, 
(United  States  Bureau  of  Education). 

"Educational  Policy,"  Bulletin  No.  1,  (International 
Sunday  School  Association). 

"Some Questions,"  (Protestant  Episcopal  Board). 

"Secondary  Credit  Courses  in  Bible,"  (Iowa  Teachers' 
Association) . 

"Bible  Study  and  the  Public  Schools,"  (Presbyterian 
Board). 

III.   Leaders  of  Week-Day   Church-School  Enter- 
prises 

Baltimore,  Md.,  Miss  Grace  Garee,  1613  Linden  Ave. 

Batavia,  111.,  Rev.  Victor  Hoag. 

Cory  don,  Iowa,  Miss  Anna  C.  Vonkoert. 

Charleston,  W.  Va.,  Rev  LeRoy  Dakin. 

Cuyahoga  Falls,  Ohio,  Rev.  R.  F.  Mayer. 

Cuylerville,  N.  Y.,  Rev.  A.  E.  Munn. 


164  THE  WEEK  DAY  CHURCH  SCHOOL 

Calumet  Region  of  Indiana,  Mr.  N.  F.  Forsyth,  Whit- 
ing, Ind. 

Evanston,  111.,  Rev.  F.  M.  McKibben,  Hatfield  Hall. 

Oak  Park,  111.,  Rev.  F.  M.  McKibben,  Hatfield  Hall. 

River  Forest,  111.,  Rev.  F.  M.  McKibben,  Hatfield  Hall. 

Toledo,  Ohio,  Professor  C.  M.  Brunson,  Nicholas 
Building. 

Gary,  Ind.,  Miss  Mary  Abernethy,  Seventh  and  Adams 
Streets. 

New  York  City,  Mr.  Harry  Wade  Hicks,  Metropolitan 
Tower. 

Northfield,  Minn.,  Professor  Allan  Hoben. 

Howard,  N.  Y.,  Rev.  Geo.  A.  Wilkinson. 

Oakland,  Cal.,  Rev.  John  M.  Donaldson. 

Geneva,  N.  Y.,  Rev.  Edwin  H.  Dickinson. 

Little  Rock,  Ark.,  Rev.  M.  H.  Krauss. 

Independence,  Mo.,  Rev.  S.  F.  Riepma. 

Wichita,  Kan.,  Rev.  Frederick  Maier. 

Wampum,  Pa.,  Rev.  Harry  E.  Woods. 

Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  Miss  Rose  Scott,  402  Columbia  Bldg. 

Kansas  City,  Mo.,  Rev.  M.  C.  Settle,  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

Somerville,  N.  J.,  Rev.  K.  G.  McComb,  3  Division  St. 

Scranton,  Pa.,  Miss  Elizabeth  Taft. 

Rochelle,  111.,  Rev.  Earl  F.  Zeigler. 

Rochester,  N.  Y.,  Dr.  Irving  T.  Clark. 

Hobart,  Ind.,  Rev.  J.  E.  Lawrence. 

Van  Wert,  Ohio,  Miss  May  K.  Cowles. 

IV.  Lesson  Courses 

Some  of  the  lesson  courses  available  have  already  been 
mentioned  in  this  book.  If  none  of  these  are  suitable,  it 
may  be  advisable  to  choose  certain  independent  courses 
such  as  church  history,  missions,  or  Bible  geography. 
Churches  desiring  to  do  this  should  write  to  their  own 
denominational  publishing  house  for  a  list  of  books  suit- 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION  165 

able  for  such  use.     The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication 
and  Sabbath  School  Work  has  recommended  the  following 
in  answer  to  requests  of  the  kind  mentioned* 
Church  History 

"Landmarks  of  Church  History,"  Cowan. 

"Growth  of  the  Christian  Church,"  Nichols. 
Bible  Geography 

"Historical  Geography  of  Bible  Lands,"  Calkin. 

"Hurlbut's  Bible  Atlas." 

"Historical  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land."     (For  ref- 
erence). 
Missions 

Current  study  books  for  adults  and  young  people. 

"History  of  Christian  Missions,"  Robinson. 

"A  Short  History  of  Christian  Missions,"  Smith. 

"Winning  the  World,"  Leonard. 
History  of  the  Bible 

"How  We  Got  Our  Bible,"  Smyth. 
The  Bible  in  Art 

"Pictures  in  Religious  Education,"  Beard. 

"Gospel  in  Art,"  Bailey. 

"Story  of  the  Masterpieces,"  Stuart. 
Ethics 

"Ethics  for  Children,"  Cabot. 

"Everyday  Ethics,"  Cabot. 


GENERAL  INDEX 

Additions  to  the  church  from  Sunday  school 20 

Adolescence 30 

Adolescent  crime 27 

Akron  plan 17, 118 

American  system  of  education 83 

Attendance 97, 114 

Batavia,  111 94,  95, 123 

Blanks  for  enrollment 152 

Books  and  supplies 147, 162, 165 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y 91 

Bushnell,  Rev.  Horace 17 

Children  out  of  Sunday  school 59 

Christian  nurture 17 

Church  statistics 18 

Communicant  classes 76 

Communities  carrying  on  week-day  religious  instruction 89, 108 

Community  training  schools 74 

Contact  with  community 21 

Cope,  Dr.  Henry  F 101 

Correlation 54, 1 16 

Corvdon,  Iowa 98 

Courses  oi  study 52, 97, 117, 140, 164 

Credits  for  Bible  studv 18, 80,  96 

Cuyahoga  Falls,  Ohio 94, 95 

Daily  Vacation  Bible  Schools 70 

Denominational  affiliation  of  pupils 125 

Denominational  type 87 

Denominational  community  type 87,  94 

Distribution  of  agencies 55, 126 

Dominant  psychic  activities 26 

Education  in  China 39 

Education  in  Germany 39 

Education  in  Japan 38 

Education  in  the  Philippine  Islands 38 

Elk  Mound,  Wis 72 

Evanston,  111 100 

Expenses 50,  97, 104, 145 

Expressional  activities 34,  53, 119 

Financial  support 50 

Flint,  Mich 90 

Foreign-born  populations 124 

166 


GENERAL  INDEX  167 

Gary,  Ind 3,82,100,103,123 

German  school  system "™ 

Governing  boards ** 

Grading l™ 

Grand  Rapids,  Mich , ■  ■  •  ■  •  •   »» 

Growth  of  week-day  religions  education 5.  "»,  iuo 

Hebrew  religious  education 47,  83, 102 

Heredity £o 

Hobart,  Ind .;•„„,.„'„. 

Housing  and  equipment 51, 9o, 118, 1J5 

Inadequacy  of  educational  agencies ;AA-™ 

Indiana  Harbor,  Ind 10°- «J 

Individual  church  type «7  qq 

Interdenominational  community  type 87,  99 

Jewish  religious  education *7>  8;*- 10* 

Juvenile  delinquency 

Latham,  Rev.  A.  L ^ 

Leavitt,  Rev.  H.  H.  .        . ■  •  •     «* 

Leaders  in  week-da v  religious  instruction 101,  loa 

_,      .  .  «54 

Mysticism 

New  York  City «»,  101 

Need  for  spiritual  power ■  •   °° 

Northfield,  Minn 94'  98 

Occasional  classes 

Parochial  schools 46>™ 

Pastors'  classes 7jj 

Percentage  of  children  in  Sunday  school 59 

Percentage  of  children  reached  by  Sunday  school 63 

Percentage  of  children  uniting  with  the  church •  ■  .21,  63 

Percentage  of  public-school  children  in  week-day  church  schools  ....  120 

Pre-school  chapel  service 7° 

Protestant  teachers'  association *~1 


Prussian  education . 


.'5!  I 


Psychology  of  religion •  ■  ■  ■  ■   ^9 

Public-school  credits  for  Bible  study 1».  hU-  90 

Ravenswood,  111 78 

Recruiting  pupils 1^ 

Reform  movements £J> 

Rochester,  N.  Y ;:■"•* 

Roman  Catholic  education *°»  "»'  UJ 

Somerville,  N.  J 94,98,139 

Squires,  Prof.  Vernon  P °" 

Summer  schools  of  religion 7~ 

Sunday-school  improvements Yl 

Sundav  school  as  a  recruiting  force 21 


168  GENERAL  INDEX 

Supervision 49 

Supplemental  agencies 69 

Teachers 48,  96, 116, 131 

Teacher  training 49,  74 

Temperance  instruction 36 

Time  for  religious  instruction 46, 112, 137, 138 

Toledo,  Ohio 82,  88, 103 

Types  of  week-day  church  schools 87 

Union  Church  of  Bay  Ridge 91 

Van  Wert,  Ohio 100, 103, 123 

Wisconsin  plan 73 

Worlds  Sunday  School  Association 17 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  classes 78 

Y.  W.  C.  A.  classes 78 

INDEX  TO  GRAPHS  AND  CHARTS 

Additions  to  the  Church 21 

Age  of  Conversion 23 

Contact  with  Community 22 

Cooperation  of  Churches  and  Public  Schools  with  Week-Day  Church 

Schools  in  Toledo 127 

Communities   Where    Week-Dav    Religious   Instruction   Has   Been 

Organized  (1920) * 106 

Communities   Where   Week-Dav  Religious    Instruction    Has    Been 

Organized  (1921) 106 

Dominant  Activity 20 

Denominational  Affiliation  of  Pupils  in  Gary 1 25 

Enrollment  in  Schools  of  Gary 120 

Growth  of  the  Week-Day  Church-School  Movement 105 

How  Sunday  Schools  are  Reaching  Their  Constituency 61 

Organization  of  a  Local  Church  for  Week-Day  Religious  Instruction .   93 
Organization  of  the  Denominational  Community  Type  of  Week-Day 

Church  Schools 95 

Organization  of  the  Interdenominational  Community  Type  of  Week- 
Day  Church  Schools 99 

Percentage  of  Attendance  in  Sunday  Schools  and  Week-Day  Church 

Schools  of  Gary 115 

Percentage  of  Public-School  Pupils  in  Week-Day  Church  Schools.  .121 
Percentage  of  Pupils  Receiving  No  Other  Religious  Instruction.  .  .  .122 
Pupils  of  Foreign-Born  and  Colored  Parentage  in  the  Gary  Week- 
Day  Church  Schools 124 

Religious  Instruction  Provided  by  Protestants,  Catholics,  and  Jews.  .113 

Sunday-School  Enrollment  in  Anderson,  Ind 59 

Yearly  Cost  Per  Pupil  for  Instruction 104 

Youth  and  Crime 29 


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